VELL'S LITERATURE SERIES, No. 76. 25 CENTS 



LONGFELLOW 



POEMS 



BY 

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 



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CONTINUED ON THIRD PAGE OF COVER. 



Voices of the Night 



BALLADS 




AND OTHER POEMS 



BY 

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 



NEW YORK 

UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY 

SUCCESSORS TO 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 

142 TO 150 WORTH STREET 



"/ 



(2 



This volume contains only the Poems now 
out of copyright. 






TROWS 

PRIKTINQ AND BOOKBINDIIVQ COMPANY, 

NEW YORK. 



CONTENTS 





FAGB 


Prelude, . . . . , 


• 9 


Voices of the Night. 




Hymn to the Night, ..... 


• 19 


A Psalm of Life, ..... 


, 21 


The Reaper and the Floweis, . 


. 24 


The Light of Stars, 


, 26 


Footsteps of Angels, .... 


. 29 


Flowers, . .... 


• 32 


The Beleaguered City, . • 


. 36 


Midnight Mass for the Dying Year, . 


. 40 


Earlier Poems. 




An April Day, 


. 47 


Autumn, . . . . . 


. 50 


Woods in Winter, 


. S3 


Hymn of the Moravian Nuns of Bethlehem, 


' 55 


Sunrise on the Hills, .... 


. 58 




. 61 


Burial of the Minnisink. .... 


. 6s 



4 CONTENTS 










TRANSLATIONS. pagh 


Coplas de Manrique, 71 


The Good Shepherd, 










. lOI 


To-morrow, 










103 


The Native Land, . 










. 105 


The Image of God, . 










107 


The Brook, 










. 109 


The Celestial Pilot, . 










III 


The Terrestrial Paradise,, . 










114 


Beatrice, . 










117 


Spring, .... 










121 


The Child Asleep, . 










123 


The Grave, 










125 


King Christian, 










128 


The Happiest La.id, . 










• 131 


The Wave, 










134 


The Dead, . . 










135 


The Bird and the Ship, . 










137 


Whither? . 










140 


Beware ! . 










142 


Song of the Bell, 










144 


The Castle by the Sea, 










146 


The Black Knight, . 










149 


Song of the Silent Land, 










153 


L'Envoij 








« 155 


Ballads and other Poems 




Preface, 


, 159 


The Skeleton in Armour, . 


.176 


The Wreck of the Hesperi 


IS, 


9 


a 




188 



CONTENTS. 



5 



PAGB 

The Luck of Edenhall, , , , . » 194 
The Elected Knight, . . . , .198 

The Children of the Lord's Supper, , ■* . 202 

Miscellaneous. 

The Village Blacksmith, , . . . . 239 
Endymion, -,,».... 242 
The Two Locks of Hair, * = , , . 245 
It is not always May, » , . . » 247 

The Rainy Day, ..•♦*, 249 

God's-Acre, 251 

To the River Charles, , » . , '253 

Blind Bartimeus, . « « » . ■, 256 
The Goblet of Life, .4 . « , 258 

Maidenhood, ..«««. c 262 
Excelsior, ••..... 266 

Poems on Slavery. 

To William E. Channing, => • • • 273 

The Slave's Dream, ..,,.. 275 
The Good Part, that shall not be taken away, = 279 
The Slave in the Dismal Swamp, . . . 282 
The Slave singing at Midnight, ♦ » = 285 

The Witnesses, q . . , ♦ » 287 

The Quadroon Girl, ,«,*•« 29a 
The Warning, . , 5 , , , c 294 



PRELUDE. 



PRELUDE. 



Pleasant it was, when woods were green, 

And winds were soft and low, 
To lie amid some sylvan scene, 
Where, the long drooping boughs between, 
Shadows dark and sunlight sheen 

Alternate come and go ; 

Or where the denser grove receives 

No sunlight from above, 
But the dark foliage interweaves 
In one unbroken roof of leaves. 
Underneath whose sloping eaves 

The shadows hardly move. 



lo PRELUDE. 

Beneath some patriarchal tree 

I lay upon the ground ; 
His hoary arms upHfted he, 
And all the broad leaves over me 
Clapped their little hands in glee, 

With one continuous sound ; — 

A slumberous sound, — a sound that brings 

The feelings of a dream, — 
As of innumerable wings, 
As, when a bell no longer swings, 
Faint the hollow murm.ur rings 

O'er meadow, lake, and stream. 

And dreams of that which cannot die, 

Bright visions, came to me, 
As lapped in thought I used to lie, 
And gaze into the summer sky* 
Where the sailing clouds went by, 

Like ships upon the sea ; 



PRELUDE. ji 

Dreams that the soul of youth engage 
Ere Fancy has been quelled ; - 

Old legends of the monkish page, 

Traditions of the saint and sage, 

Tale that have the rime of age, 
And chronicles of Eld. 



And, loving still these quaint old themes, 

Even in the city's throng 
I feel the freshness of the streams, 
That, crossed by shades and sunny gleams, 
Water the green land of dreams, 

The holy land of songo 

Therefore, at Pentecost, which brings 
The Spring, clothed like a bride. 

When nestling buds unfold their wings. 

And bishop's-caps have golden rings. 

Musing upon many things, 
I sought the woodlands wide^ 



12 PRELUDE, 

The green trees whispered low and mild 

It was a sound of joy ! 
They were my playmates when a child, 
And rocked me in their arms so wild ! 
Still they looked at me and smiled, 

As if I were a boy ; 

And ever whispered, mild and low, 
*• Come, be a child once more ! " 
And waved their long arms to and fro, 
And beckoned solemnly and slow j 
O, 1 could not choose but go 
Into the woodlands hoar ; 

Into the blithe and breathing air, 

Into the solemn wood. 
Solemn and silent everywhere ! 
Nature with folded hands seemed there. 
Kneeling at her evening prayer ! 

Like one in prayer I stood. 



PRELUDE. \r 

Before me rose an avenue 

Of tall and sombrous pines ; 
Abroad their fan-like branches grew, 
And, where the sunshine darted through, 
Spread a vapor soft and blue. 

In long and sloping lines. 

And, falling on my weary brain. 

Like a fast-falling shower. 
The dreams of youth came back again ; 
Low lispings of the summer rain. 
Dropping on the ripened grain. 

As once upon the flower. 

Visions of childhood ! Stay, O stay ! 

Ye were so sweet and wild ! 
And distant voices seemed to say, 
** It cannot be ! They pass away [ 
Other themes demand thy lay ; 

Thou art no more a child ! 



14 PRELUDE. 

" The land of Song within thee lies, 
Watered by living springs ; 
The lids of Fancy's sleepless eyes 
Are gates unto that Paradise, 
Holy thoughts, like stars, arise, 
Its clouds are angels' wings. 

** Learn, that henceforth thy song shall be, 
Not mountains capped with snow, 
Nor forests sounding like the sea, 
Nor rivers flowing ceaselessly. 
Where the woodlands bend to see 

The bending heavens below. 

I' 

" There is a forest where the din 

Of iron branches sounds ! 
A mighty river roars between, 
And whosoever looks therein 
Sees the heavens all black with sin. 

Sees not its depths, nor bounds. 



PRELUDE. 13 

*^ Athwart the swinging branches cast, 

Soft rays of sunshine pour ; 
Then comes the fearful wintry blast ; 
Our hopes, like withered leaves, fall fast ; 
Pallid lips say, ' It is past ! 

We can return no more ! ' 



" Look, then, into thine heart, and write ! 
Yes, into Life's deep stream \ 
All forms of sorrow and delight, 
All solemn Voices of the Night, 
That can soothe thee, or affright, — 
Be these henceforth thy theme." 



VOICES OF THE NIGHT. 



Tloryia, irSryia vv^, 
vvvo^Sreipa rcav ttoXvitSvoov ^porSop^ 
Ep€/366ev Wi' /*JAe ix6\e KaTdiTT€pa$ 

virh yap a\y4oov^ virS re a'vad)opas 

Euripides, 



HYMN TO THE NIGHT. 



^Acnraair], rpiXXiffros, 



I HEARD the trailing garments of the Night 
Sweep through her marble halls ! 

I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light 
From the celestial walls 1 

I felt her presence, by Its spell of might, 

' Stoop o'er me from above ; 
The calm, majestic presence of the Night, 
As of the one I love. 

I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight. 

The manifold, soft chimes, 
That fill the haunted chambers of the Night, 

Like some old poet's rhymes. 



20 HYMN TO THE NIGHT. 

From the cool cisterns of the midnight air 

My spirit drank repose ; 
The fountain of perpetual peace flows thera,- , 

.From those deep cisterns flows. 

O holy Night ! from thee I learn to bear 

What man has borne before ! 
Thou layest- thy finger on the lips of Care, 

And they complain no more. 

Peace ! Peace ! Orestes-like I breathe this 
prayer ! 
Descend with broad-winged flight, 
The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most 
fair, 
The best-beloved Night ! 



A PSALM OF LIFE. 



WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN SA«D TO THE 
PSALMIST. 



Tell me not, in mournful numbers, 
'* Life is but an empty dream ! " 

For the soul is dead that slumbers. 
And things are not what they seem. 

Life is real ! Life is earnest ! 

And the grave is not its goal ; 
*'Dust thou art, to dust returnest/* 

Was not spoken of the soul. 



22 VOICES OF THE NIGHT. 

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 
Is our destined end or way ; 

But to act, that each to-morrow 
Find us farther than to-day. 



Art is long, and Time is fleeting. 

And our hearts, though stout and brave, 

Still, like muffled drums, are beating 
Funeral marches to the grave. 

In the world's broad field of battle. 

In the bivouac of Life, 
Be not like dumb, driven cattle ! 

Be a hero in the strife ! 



Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant! 

Let the dead Past bury its dead ! 
Act, — -act in the living Present ! 

Heart within, and God overhead ! 



A PSALM OF LIFE. 23 

Lives of great men all remind us 
We can make our lives sublime, 

And, departing, leave behind us 
Footsteps on the sands of time ;^ 



Footsteps, that perhaps another, 
Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother^ 
Seeing, shall take heart again. 

Let us, then, be up and doing, 
With a heart for any fate ; 

Still achieving, still pursuing, 
Learn to labor and to wait. 



THE REAPER AND THE FLOWERS. 



There is a Reaper, whose name is Death, 

And, with his sickle keen, 
He reaps the bearded grain at a breath, 

And the flowers that p-row between. 



fc>' 



*' Shall I have nought that is fair ? " saith he ; 

** Have nought but the bearded grain ? 
Though the breath of these flowers is sweet U 
me, 

I will give them all back again." 

He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes, 

He kissed their drooping leaves ; 
It was for the Lord of Paradise 

He bound them in his sheaves. 



THE REAPER AND THE FLOWERS. 25 

** My Lord has need of these flowerets gay," 

The Reaper said, and smiled ; 
" Dear tokens of the earth are they, 

Where he was once a child. 

" They shall all bloom in fields of light, 

Transplanted by my care, 
And saints, upon their garments white. 

These sacred blossoms wear." 

And the mother gave, in tears and pain, 

The flowers she most did love ; 
She knew she should find them all again 

In the fields of light above. 

O, not in cruelty, not in wrath. 

The Reaper came that day ; 
'T was an angel visited the green earth. 

And took the flowers away. 



THE LIGHT OF STARS. 



The night is come, but not too soon ; 

And sinking silently, 
All silently, the little moon 

Drops down behind the sky. 

There is no light in earth or heaven 
But the cold light of stars ; 

And the first watch of night is given 
To the red planet Mars. 

Is it the tender star of love ? 

The star of love and dreams ? 
O no ! from that blue tent above, 

A hero's armor gleams. 



THE LIGHT OF STARS. 27 

And earnest thoughts within me rise, 

When I behold afar, 
Suspended in the evening skies, 

The shield of that red star. 



star of strength ! I see thee stand 
And smile upon my pain ; 

Thou beckonest with thy mailed hand. 
And I am strong again. 

Within my breast there is no light, 
But the cold light of stars ; 

1 give the first watch of the night 
To the red planet Mars. 

The star of the unconquered willj 

He rises in my breast, 
Serene, and resolute, and still, 

And calm, and self-possessed. 



28 VOICES OF THE NIGHT. 

And thou, too, whosoe'er thou art. 
That readest this brief psalm, 

As one by one thy hopes depart, 
Be resolute and calm. 



O fear not in a world Hke this, 
And thou shalt know ere long. 

Know how sublime a thing it is 
To suffer and be strong. 



FOOTSTEPS OF ANGELS. 



When the hours of Day are numberedp 
And the voices of the Night 

Wake the better soul, that skimbered, 
To a holy, calm delight ; 

Ere the evening lamps are lighted, 
And, like phantoms grim and tall. 

Shadows from the fitful fire-light 
Dance upon the parlour wall ; 

Then the forms of the departed 

Enter at the open door ; 
The beloved, the true-heartedj, 

Come to visit me once more ; 



30 VOICES OF THE NIGHT, 

He, the young and strong, who cherished 
I Noble longings for the strife, 

By the road-side fell and perished. 
Weary with the march of life ! 



They, the holy ones and weakly, 
Who the cross of suffering bore, 

Folded their pale hands so meekly, 
Spake with us on earth no more 1 



And with them the Being Beauteousj 
Who unto my youth was given, 

More than all things else to love me, 
And is now a saint in heaven. 



With a slow and noiseless footstep 
Comes that messenger divine. 

Takes the vacant chair beside me, 
Lays her gentle hand in mine. 



FOOTSTEPS OF ANGELS. 31 

And she sits and gazes at me 

With those deep and tender eyes^ 

Like the stars, so still and saint-Hke. 
Looking downward from the skies. 



Uttered not, yet comprehended, 
Is the spirit's voiceless prayer, 

Soft rebukes, in blessings ended. 
Breathing from her Hps of air. 

O, though oft depressed and lonely. 
All my fears are laid aside, 

If I but remember only 

Such as these have lived and died } 



FLOWERS. 



Spake full well, in language quaint and olden, 
One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine, 

When he called the flowers, so blue and goldei\ 
Stars, that in earth's firmament do shine. 

Stars they are, wherein we read our history, 

As astrologers and seers of eld ; 
Yet not wrapped about with awful mystery, 

Like the burning stars, which they beheld. 



Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous, 
God hath written in those stars above ; 

But not less in the bright flowerets under us 
Stands the revelation of his love* 



FLOWERS. 33 

Bright and glorious is that revelation, 
Written all over this great world of ours ; 

Making evident our own creation, 

In these stars of earth, — these golden flowers. 



And the Poet, faithful and far-seeing, 
Sees, alike in stars and flowers, a part 

Of the self-same, universal being. 

Which is throbbing in his brain and heart. 



Gorgeous flowerets in the sunlight shining. 
Blossoms flaunting in the eye of day, 

Tremulous leaves, with soft and silver lining, 
Buds that open only to decay ; 

Brilliant hopes, all woven in gorgeous tissuesj 
Flaunting gayly in the golden light ; 

Large desires, with most uncertain issues. 
Tender wishes, blossoming at night I 



34 VOICES OF THE NIGHT. 

These in flowers and men are more than seem* 
ing; 

Workings are they of the self-same powers, 
Which the Poet, in no idle dreaming, 

Seeth in himself and in the flowers. 



Everywhere about us are they glowing.. 
Some like stars, to tell us Spring is born ; 

Others, their blue eyes with tears o'erflowing, 
Stand like Ruth amid the golden corn ; 

Not alone in Spring's armorial bearing. 
And in Summer's green-emblazoned field, 

But in arms of brave old Autumn's wearing^ 
In the centre of his brazen shield ; 

Not alone in meadows and green alleys, 
On the mountain- top, and by the brink 

Of sequestered pools in woodland valleys, 
Where the slaves of Nature stoop to drink ; 



FLOWERS. 35 

Not alone in her vast dome of glory, 
Not on graves of bird and beast alone. 

But in old cathedrals, high and hoary, 
On the tombs of heroes, carved in stone ; 

« 

In the cottage of the rudest peasant, 

In ancestral homes, whose crumbling towers. 

Speaking of the Past unto the Present, 
Tell us of the ancient Games of Flowers \ 

In all places, then, and in all seasons. 

Flowers expand their light and soul-like wings 

Teaching us, by most persuasive reasons, 
How akin they are to human things. 

And with childlike, credulous affection 
We behold their tender buds expand ; 

Emblems of our own great resurrection, 
Emblems of the bright and better land. 



THE BELEAGUERED CITY. 



I HAVE read, in some old marvellous tale. 

Some legend strange and vague, 
That a midnight host of spectres pale 

Beleaguered the walls of Prague. 

Beside the Moldau's rushing stream, 
With the wan moon overhead. 

There stood, as in an awful dream, 
The army of the dead. 

White as a sea-fog, landward bound. 

The spectral camp was seen. 
And, with a sorrowful, deep sound, 

The river flowed between. 



THE BELEAGUERED CITY, 37 

No other voice nor sound was there. 

No drum, nor sentry's pace ; 
The mist-like banners clasped the air^ 

As clouds with clouds embrace. 



But, when the old cathedral bell 
Proclaimed the morning prayer. 

The white pavilions rose and fell 
On the alarmed air. ^ 



Down the broad valley fast and far 

The troubled army fled ; 
Up rose the glorious morning star, 

The ghastly host was dead. 

I have read, in the marvellous heart of man, 

That strange and mystic scroll, 
That an army of phantoms vast and wan 

Beleaguer the human soul. 



s^S VOICES OF THE NIGHT. 

Encamped beside Life's rushing stream, 

In Fancy's misty light, 
Gigantic shapes and shadows gleam 

Portentous through the night. 



Upon its midnight battle-ground 
The spectral camp is seen, 

And, with a sorrowful, deep sound. 
Flows the River of Life between. 



No other \oice, nor sound is there. 
In the army of the grave ; 

No other challenge breaks the air, 
But the rushing of Life's wave. 



And, when the solemn and deep church bell 

Entreats the soul to pray, 
The midnight phantoms feel the spell, 

The shadows sweep away. 



THE BELEAGUERED CITY. 39 

Down the broad Vale of Tears afar 

The spectral camp is fled ; 
Faith shineth as a morning star, 

Our ghastly fears are dead. 



MIDNIGHT MASS FOR THE DYING 
YEAR. 



Yes, the Year is growing old, 
And his eye is pale and bleared ! 

Death, with frosty hand and cold, 
Plucks the old man by the beard, 
Sorely, — sorely ! 

The leaves are falling, falling, 

Solemnly and slow ; 
" Caw ! caw ! " the rooks are calling, 

It is a sound of woe, 
A sound of woe ! 



MIDNIGHT MASS FOR THE DYING YEAR. 41 

Through woods and mountain passes 
The winds, Hke anthems, roll ; 

They are chanting solemn masses, 
Singing ; " Pray for this poor soul, 
Pray, — pray ! " 

And the hooded clouds, like friars, 
Tell their beads in drops of rain, 

And patter their doleful prayers \ — • 
But their prayers are all in vain, 
All in vain ! 

There he stands in the foul weather, 

The foolish, fond Old Year, 
Crowned with wild flowers and with heather, 

Like weak, despised Lear, 
A king, — a king ! 

Then comes the summer-like day, 

Bids the old man rejoice ! 
His joy ! his last ! O, the old man gray, 

Loveth that ever-soft voice, 
Gentle and low. 



42 VOICES OF THE NIGHT. 

To the crimson woods he saith, — 
To the voice gentle and low 

Of the soft air, like a daughter's breath,— 
" Pray do not mock me so ! 
Do not laugh at me ! " 

And now the sweet day is dead ; 

Cold in his arms it lies ; 
No stain from its breath is spread 

Over the glassy skies, 
No mist or stain ! 

Then, too, the Old Year dieth, 
And the forests utter a moan, 

Like the voice of one who crieth 
In the wilderness alone, 
" Vex not his ghost ! " 

Then comes, with an awful roar, 

Gathering and sounding on. 
The storm-wind from Labrador, 

The wind Euroclydon, 
The storm-wind ! 



MIDNIGHT MASS FOR THE DYING YEAR. 43 

Howl ! howl ! and from the forest 

Sweep the red leaves away \ 
Would, the sins that thou abhorrest, 

O Soul ! could thus decay, 
And be swept away ! 

For there shall come a mightier blast, 

There shall be a darker day ; 
And the stars, from heaven down-cast, 
Like red leaves be swept away ! 
Kyrie, eleyson \ 
Christe, eleyson ! 



EARLIER POEMS, 



frhese poems were written for the most part during 
my college life, and all of them before the age of nine- 
teen. Some have found their way into schools, and 
seem to be successful. Others lead a vagabond and 
precarious existence in the corners of newspapers ; or 
have changed their names and run away to seek their 
fortunes beyond the sea. 1 say, with the Bishop of 
Avranches, on a similar occasion : " 1 cannot be dis- 
pleased to see these children of mine, which I have 
neglected, and almost exposed, brought from their 
wanderings in lanes and alleys, and safely lodged, m 
order to go forth into the world together in a more de- 
corous garb."] 



I 



AN APRIL DAY- 



When the warm sun, that brings 
Seed-time and harvest, has returned agaih^ 
. 'T is sweet to visit the still wood, where spring? 
The first flower of the plain. 

I love the season well, 
When forest glades are teeming with bright 

forms, 
Nor dark and many-folded clouds foretell 

The coming-on of storms. 

From the earth's loosened mould 
The sapHng draws its sustenance, and thrives ; 
Though stricken to the heart with winter's 
cold, 

The drooping tree revives. 



48 EARLIER POEMS. 

The softly-warbled song 
Comes from the pleasant woods, and colored 

wings 
Glance quick in the bright sun , that moves along 

The forest openings. 

When the bright sunset fills 
The silver woods with light, the green slope 

throws 
Its shadows in the hollows of the hills, 

And wide the upland glows. 

And, when the eve is born, 
In the blue lake the sky, o'er-reaching far. 
Is hollowed out, and the moon dips her horn, 

And twinkles many a star. 

Inverted in the tide, 
Stand the gray rocks, and trembling shadows 

throw, 
^nd the fair trees look over, side by side, 

And see themselves below. 



AN APRIL DAY, 49 

Sweet April ! — many a thought 
Is wedded unto thee, as hearts are wed ; 
Nor shall they fail, till, to its autumn brought^ 

Life's golden fruit is shed. 



AUTUMN. 



With what a glory comes and goes the year ! 
The buds of spring, those beautiful harbingers 
Of sunny skies and cloudless times, enjoy 
Life's newness, and earth's garniture spread 

out ; 
And when the silver habit of the clouds 
Comes down upon the autjLimn sun, and with 
A sober giv^'dness the old year takes up 
His bright inheritance of golden fruits, 
A pomp and pageant fill the splendid scene. 

There is a beautiful spirit breathing now 
Its mellow richness on the clustered treeSp 
And, from a beaker full of richest dyes, 



AUTUMN, %x 

Pouring new glory on the autumn woods, 
And dipping in warm light the pillared clouds. 
Morn on the mountain, like a summer bird. 
Lifts up her purple wing, and in the vales 
The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer, 
Kisses the blushing leaf, and stirs up life 
Within the solemn woods of ash deep-crim" 

soned, 
And silver beech, and maple yellow-leaved, 
Where autumn, like a faint old man, sits down 
^y the wayside a-weary. Through the trees 
The golden robin moves. The purple finch, 
That on wild cherry and red cedar feeds, 
A winter bird, comes with its plaintive whistle, 
And pecks by the witch-hazel, whilst aloud 
From cottage roofs the warbling blue-bird sings^ 
And merrily, with oft-repeated stroke, 
Sounds from the threshing-floor the busy flail. 

O what a glory doth this world put on 
For him who, with a fervent heart, goes forth 



52 EARLIER POEMS, 

Under the bright and glorious sky, and looks 
On duties well performed, and days well spent ! 
For him the wind, ay, and the yellow leaves 
Shall have a voice, and give him eloquent teach- 
ings. 
He shall so hear the solemn hymn, that Death 
Has lifted up for all, that he shall go 
To his long resting-place without a tear. 



WOODS IN WINTER. 



When winter winds are piercing chill, 

And through the hawthorn blows the gale, 

With solemn feet I tread the hill, 
That overbrows the lonely vale. 

O'er the bare upland, and away 

Through the long reach of desert woods, 
The embracing, sunbeams chastely play, 

And gladden these deep solitudes. 

Where, twisted round the barren oak, 
The summer vine in beauty clung, 

And summer winds the stillness broke, 
The crystal icicle is hung. 



54 EARLIER POEMS. 

Where, from their frozen urns, mute springs 
Pour out the river's gradual tide, 

Shrilly the skater's iron rings, 

And voices fill the woodland side. 

Alas ! how changed from the fair scene, 
When birds sang out their mellow lay. 

And winds were soft, and woods were greenj 
And the song ceased not with the day. 

But still wild music is abroad. 

Pale, desert woods ! within your crowd ; 
And gathering winds, in hoarse accord. 

Amid the vocal reeds pipe loud. 

Chill airs and wintry winds ! my ear 
Has grown familiar with your song ; 

I hear it in the opening year, — - 
I listen, and it cheers me long. 



HYMN OF THE MORAVIAN NUNS Oi* 
BETHLEHEM, 

AT THE CONSECRATION OF PULASKl'S BANNER. 



When the dying flame of day- 
Through tne chancel shot its ray, 
Far the ghmmering tapers shed 
Faint hght on the cowled head ; 
And the censer burning swung, 
Where, before the altar, hung 
The blood-red banner, that with prayer 
Had been consecrated there. 

And the nun's sweet hymn was heard the while. 
Sung low in the dim, mysterious aisle. 



56 EARLIER POEMS. 

** Take thy banner ! May it wave 
Proudly o'er the good and brave ; 
When the battle's distant wail 
Breaks the sabbath of our vale, 
When the clarion's music thrills 
To the hearts of these lone hills, 
When the spear in conflict shakes, 
And the strong lance shivering breaks. 

** Take thy banner ! and, beneath 
The battle-cloud's encircling wreath, 
Guard it ! — till our homes are free \ 
Guard it ! — God will prosper thee 1 
In the dark and trying hour, 
In the breaking forth of power, 
In the rush of steeds and men, 
His right hand will shield thee then. 

** Take thy banner ! But, when night 
Closes round the ghastly fight, 



HYMN OF THE MORAVIAN NUNS. 57 

If the vanquished warrior bow, 

Spare him ! — By our holy vow, 

By our prayers and many tears. 

By the mercy that endears, 

Spare him ! — he our love hath shared ! 

Spare him ! — as thou wouldst be spared ! 

** Take thy banner ! — and if e'er 

Thou shouldst press the soldier's bier. 
And the muffled drum should beat 
To the tread of mournful feet, 
Then this crimson flag shall be 
Martial cloak and shroud for thee." 



The warrior took that banner proud, 
And it was his martial cloak and shroud ! 



SUNRISE ON THE HILLS. 



I STOOD upon the hills, when heaven's wide 

arch 
Was glorious with the sun's returning march, 
And woods were brightened, and soft gales 
Went forth to kiss the sun-clad vales. 
The clouds were far beneath me ; — bathed in 

light, 
They -gathered mid-way round the wooded 

height, 
And, in their fading-glory, shone 
Like hosts in battle overthrown, ' 

As many a pinnacle, with shifting glance, 
Through the gray mist thrust up its shattered 

lance, 



SUNRISE ON THE HILLS, 59 

And rocking on the cliff was left 
The dark pine blasted, bare, and cleft. 
The veil of cloud was lifted, and below 
Glowed the rich valley, and the river's flow 
Was darkened by the forest's shade, 
Or ghstened in the white cascade ; 
Where upward, in the mellow blush of day^ 
The noisy bittern wheeled his spiral way. 



I heard the distant waters dash, 
I saw the current whirl and flash, — 
And richly, by the blue lake's silver beach, 
The woods were bending with a silent reach. 
Then o'er the vale, with gentle swell, 
The music of the village beU 
Came sweetly to the echo-giving hills ; 
And the wild horn, whose voice the woodland 

fills, 
Was ringing to the merry shout, - 
That faint and far the glen sent out, 



6o EARLIER POEMS. 

Where, answering to the sudden shot, thin 

smoke, 
Through thick-leaved branches, from the din 

gle broke. 

If thou art worn and hard beset 
With sorrows, that thou wouldst forget. 
If thou wouldst read a lesson, that will keep 
Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from 

sleep, 
Go to the woods and hills ! — No tear? 
Dim the sweet look that Nature wears* 



THE SPIRIT OF POETRY. 



There is a quiet spirit in these woods, 

That dwells where'er the gentle south wind 

blows ; 
Where, underneath the white-thorn, in the 

glade, 
The wild flowers bloom, or, kissing the soft air^ 
The leaves above their sunny palms outspread. 
With what a tender and impassioned voice 
It fills the nice and delicate ear of thought, 
When the fast-ushering star of morning comes 
O'er-riding the gray hills with golden scarf; 
Or when the cowled and dusky-sandaled Eve, 
In mourning weeds, from out the western gate^ 



62 EARLIER POEMS, 

Departs* with silent pace ! That spirit moves 
In the green valley, where the silver brook, 
From its full laver, pours the wide cascade ; 
And, babbling low amid the tangled woods, 
Slips down through moss-grown stones with 

endless laughter. 
And frequent, on the everlasting hills, 
Its feet go forth, when it doth wrap itself 
In all the dark embroidery of the storm. 
And shouts the stern, strong wind. And here, 

amid 
The silent majesty of these deep woods, 
Its presence shall uplift thy thoughts from 

earth. 
As to the sunshine and the pure, bright air 
Their tops the green trees lift. Hence gifted 

bards 
Have ever loved the calm and quiet shades. 
For them there was an eloquent voice in all 
The sylvan pomp of woods, the golden sun. 
The flowers, the leaves, the river on its way, 



THE SPIRIT OF POETRY. 63 

Blue skies, and silver clouds, and gentle 

winds, — 
The swelling upland, where the sidelong sun 
Aslant the wooded slope, at evening, goes, — 
Groves, through whose broken roof the sky 

looks in, 
Mountain, and shattered cliff, and sunny vale, 
The distant lake, fountains, — and mighty trees, 
In many a lazy syllable, repeating 
Their old poetic legends to the wind. 

And this is the sweet spirit, that doth fill 
The world ; and, in these wayward days of 

youth, 
My busy fancy oft embodies it, 
As a bright image of the light and beauty 
That dwell in nature, — of the heavenly forms 
We worship in our dreams, and the soft hues 
That stain the wild bird's wing, and flush the 

clouds 
When the sun sets. Within her eye 



64 



EARLIER POEMS. 



The heaven of April, with its changing light, 
And when it wears the blue of May, is hung, 
And on her lip the rich, red rose. Her hair 
Is like the summer tresses of the trees^ 
When twilight makes them brown, and on hei 

cheek 
Blushes the richness of an autumn sky, 
With ever-shifting beauty. Then her breathy 
It is so like the gentle air of Spring, 
As, from the morning's dewy flowers, it comes 
Full of their fragrance, that it is a joy 
To have it round us, — and her silver voice 
Is the rich music of a summer bird, 
Heard in the still night, with its passionate 

cadence. 



I 



BU1RTAL OF THE MINNISINK, 



On sunny slope and beechen swell, 
The shadowed light of evening fell ; 
And, where the maple's leaf was brown, 
With soft and silent lapse came down 
The glory, that the wood receives, 
At sunset, in its brazen leaves. 

Far upward in the mellow light 
Rose the blue hills. One cloud of white. 
Around a far uplifted cone, 
In the warm blush of evening shone ; 
An image of the silver lakes, 
By which the Indian's soul awakes. 



66 ^ EARLIER POEMS. 

But soon a funeral hymn was heard 
Where the soft breath of evening stirred 
The tall, gray forest ; and a band 
Of stern in heart, and strong in hand, 
Came winding down beside the wave, 
To lay the red chief in his grave. 

They sang, that by his native bowers 
He stood, in the last moon of flowers, 
And thirty snows had not yet shed 
Their glory on the warrior's head ; 
But, as the summer fruit decays, 
So died he in those naked days. 

A dark cloak of the roebuck's skin 
Covered the warrior, and within 
Its heavy folds the weapons, made 
For the hard toils of war, were laid ; 
The cuirass, woven of plaited reeds. 
And the broad belt of shells and beads. 



BURIAL OF THE MJNNISINK. 67 

Before, a dark-haired virgin train 
Chanted the death dirge of the slain; 
Behind, the long procession came 
Of hoary men and chiefs of fame, 
With heavy hearts, and eyes of grief, 
Leading the war-horse of their chief. 

Stripped of his proud and martial dress, 
Uncurbed, unreined, and riderless. 
With darting eye, and nostril spread, 
And heavy and impatient tread. 
He came ; and oft that eye so proud 
Asked for his rider in the crowd. 



They buried the dark chief ; they freed 
Beside the grave his battle steed ; 
And swift an arrow cleaved its way 
To his stern heart ! One piercing neigh 
Arose, — and, on the dead man's plain, 
The rider grasps his steed again. 



TRANSLATIONS. 



[Don Jorge Manrique, the author of the following poem, 
flourished in the last half of the fifteenth century. 
He followed the profession of arms, and died on the 
field of battle. Mariana, in his History of Spain, 
makes honorable mention of him, as being present at 
the siege of Ucles ; and speaks of him as " a youth of 
estimable qualities, who in this war gave brilliant proofs 
of his valor. He died young ; and was thus cut off from 
long exercising his great virtues, and exhibiting to the 
world the light of his genius, which was already known 
to fame." He was mortally wounded in a skirmish 
near Cafiavete, in the year 1479. ' 

The name of Rodrigo Manrique, the father of the 
poet, Conde de Paredes and Maestre de Santiago, is 
well known in Spanish history and song. He died in 
1476 ; according to Mariana, in the town of Ucles ; but, 
according to the poem of his son, in Ocaiia. It was 
his death that called forth the poem upon which rests 
the literary reputation of the younger Manrique. In the 
language of his historian, " Don Jorge Manrique, in an 
elegant Ode, full of poetic beauties, rich embellish- 
ments of genius, and high moral reflections, mourned 
the death of his father as with a funeral hymn." This 
praise is not exaggerated. The poem is a model in its 
kind. Its conception is solemn and beautiful ; and, in 
accordance with it, the style moves on — calm, dig- 
nified, and majestic] 



COPLAS DE MANRIQUE. 



FROM THE SPANISH. 



O LET the soul her slumbers break, 
Let thought be quickened, and awake ; 
Awake to see 

How soon this life is past and gone, 
And death comes softly stealing on, 
How silently ! 

Swiftly our pleasures ghde away, 
Our hearts recall the distant day 
With many sighs ; 
The moments that are speeding fast 
We heed not, but the past,— the past,— 
More highly prize. 



72 TRANSLATIONS. 

Onward its course the present keeps, 
Onward the constant current sweeps, 
Till life is done ; 

And, did we judge of time aright, 
The past and future in their flight 
Would be as one. 

Let no one fondly dream again, 
That Hope and all her shadowy train 
Will not decay ; 

Fleeting as were the dreams of old, 
Remembered like a tale that 's told. 
They pass away. 

Our lives are rivers, gliding free 
To that unfathomed, boundless sea, 
The silent grave ! 

Thither all earthly pomp and boast 
Roll, to be swallowed up and lost 
In one dark wave. 



COPLAS DE MANRIQUE, 73 

Thither the mighty torrents stray, 
Thither the brook pursues its way, 
And tinkling rill. 

There all are equal. Side by side 
The poor man and the son of pri^e 
Lie calm and still. 



I will not here invoke the throng 

Of orators and sons of song, 

The deathless few ; 

Fiction entices and deceives, 

And, sprinkled o'er her fragrant leaves. 

Lies poisonous dew. 

To One alone my thoughts arise, 

The Eternal Truth, — the Good and Wise,- 

To Him I cry, 

Who shared on earth our common lot, 

But the world comprehended not 

His deity. 



f4 TRANSLATIONS. 

This world is but the rugged road 
Which leads us to the bright abode 
Of peace above ; 

So let us choose that narrow way, 
Which leads no traveller's foot astray 
From realms of love. 

Our cradle is the starting-place, 
In life we run the onward race, 
And reach the goal ; 
When, in the mansions of the blest, 
Death leaves to its eternal rest 
The weary soul. 

Did we but use it as we ought, 

This world would school each wandering 

thought 
To its high state. 

Faith wings the soul beyond the sky, 
Up to that better world on high. 
For which we wait, 



COPLAS DE MANRIQUE. 75 

Yes, — the glad messenger of love, 
To guide us to our home above. 
The Saviour came ; 
Born amid mortal cares and fears. 
He suffered in this vale of tears 
A death of shame. 

Behold of what delusive worth 
The bubbles v/e pursue on earth, 
The shapes we chase, 
Amid a world of treachery ! 
They vanish ere death shuts the eye, 
And leave no trace. 

Time steals them from us, — chances strange, 

Disastrous accidents, and change, 

That come to all ; 

Even in the most exalted state. 

Relentless sweeps the stroke of fate ; 

The strongest fall. 



^d TRANSLATIONS. 

\ Tell me, — the charms that lovers seek 
In the clear eye and blushing cheek, 
The hues that play 
O'er rosy lip and brow of snow, 
When hoary age approaches slow, 
Ah, where are they ? 

The cunning skill, the curious arts, 

The glorious strength that youth imparts 

In life's first stage ; 

These shall become a heavy weight. 

When Time swings wide his outward gate 

To weary age. 

The noble blood of Gothic name, 
Heroes emblazoned high to fame, 
In long array ; 

How, in the onward course of time, 
The landmarks of that race sublime 
Were swept away ! 



CO PL AS DE MANRIQUE. 77 

Some, the degraded slaves of lust. 
Prostrate and trampled in the dust, 
Shall rise no more ; 
Others, by guilt and crime, maintain 
The scutcheon, that, without a stain. 
Their fathers bore. 



Wealth and the high estate of pride, 

With what untimely speed they glidcj, 

How soon depart ! 

Bid not the shadowy phantoms stay, 

The vassals of a mistress they, 

Of fickle heart. 

These gifts in Fortune's hands are found ; 
Her swift revolving wheel turns round, 
And they are gone ! 
No rest the inconstant goddess knows, 
But changing, and without repose. 
Still hurries on. 



78 TRANSLATIONS. 

Even could the hand of avarice save 
Its gilded baubles, till the grave 
Reclaimed its prey, 
Let none on such poor hopes rely ; 
Life, like an empty dream, flits by^ 
And where are they ? 

Earthly desires and sensual lust 

Are passions springing from the dust, — 

They fade and die ; 

But, in the life beyond the tomb, 

They seal the immortal spirit's doom 

Eternally ! 

The pleasures and delights, which mask 
In treacherous smiles hfe's serious task, 
What are they, all. 
But the fleet coursers of the chase. 
And death an ambush in the race, 
Wherein we fall ? 



COPLAS DE MANRIQUE. 79 

No foe, no dangerous pass, we heed^ 
Brook no delay, — but onward speed 
With loosened rein ; 
And, when the fatal snare is near, 
We strive to check our mad career. 
But strive in vain. 



Could we new charms to age impart, 
And fashion with a cunning art 
The human face. 

As we can clothe the soul with light, 
And make the glorious spirit bright 
With heavenly grace, — 

How busily each passing hour 
Should we exert that magic power ! 
What ardor show. 
To deck the sensual slave of* sin. 
Yet leave the freeborn soul within, 
In weeds of woe ! 



TRANSLA TIONS. 

Monarchs, the powerful and the strong, 

Famous in history and in song 

Of olden time, 

Saw, by the stern decrees of fate, 

Their kingdoms lost, and desolate 

Their race sublime. 



Who is the champion ? who the strong ? 

Pontiff and priest, and sceptred throng ? 

On these shall fall 

As heavily the hand of Death, 

As when it stays the shepherd's breath 

Beside his stall. 

I speak not of the Trojan name. 

Neither its glory nor its shame 

Has met our eyes ; 

Nor of Rame's great and glorious dead, 

Though we have heard so oft, and read, 

Their histories. 



COPLAS DE MANRIQUE. 8i 

Little avails it now to know 
Of ages passed so long ago, 
Nor how they rolled ; 
Our theme shall be of yesterday. 
Which to oblivion sweeps away, 
Like days of old. 

Where is the King, Don Juan ? Where 

Each royal prince and noble heir 

Of Aragcn ? 

Where are the courtly gallantries ? 

The deeds of love and high emprise, 

In battle done? 

Tourney and joust, that charmed the eye, 

And scarf, and gorgeous panoply, 

And nodding plume, — 

What were they but a pageant scene ? 

What but the garlands, gay and green, 

That deck the tomb ? 
6 



82 TRANSLATIONS. 

Where are the high-born dames, and where 

Their gay attire, and jewelled hair, 

And odors sweet ? 

Where are the gentle knights, that came 

To kneel, and breathe love's ardent flame, 

Low at their feet ? 



Where is the song of Troubadour ? 

Where are the lute and gay tambour 

They loved of yore ? 

Where is the mazy dance of old, 

The flowing robes, inwrought with gold, 

The dancers wore ? 

And he who next the sceptre swayed, 
Henry, whose royal court displayed 
Such power and pride ; 
O, in what winning smiles arrayed, 
The world its various pleasures laid 
His throne beside ! 



COPLAS DE MANRIQUE. 83 

But O ! how false. and full of guile 
That world, which wore so soft a smile 
But to betray ! 

She, that had been his friend before, 
Now from the fated monarch tore 
Her charms away. 

The countless gifts, — the stately walls, 

The royal palaces, and halls 

All filled with gold ; 

Plate with armorial bearings wrought. 

Chambers with ample treasures fraught 

Of wealth untold ; 

The noble steeds, and harness bright. 
And gallant lord, and stalwart knight, 
In rich array, — 

Where shall we seek them now ? Alas i 
Like the bright dewdrops on the grass. 
They passed away. 



84 TRANSLA TION^. 

His brother, too, whose factious zeai 
Usurped the sceptre of Castile, 
Unskilled to reign ; 
What a gay, brilliant court had he, 
When all the flower of chivalry- 
Was in his train ! 



But he was mortal ; and the breath. 

That flamed from the hot forge of Death, 

Blasted his years ; 

Judgment of God ! that flame by thee, 

When raging fierce and fearfully, 

Was quenched in tears ! 

Spain's haughty Constable, — the great 
And gallant Master, — cruel fate 
Stripped him of all. 
Breathe not a whisper of his pride, — 
He on the gloomy scafl"old died. 
Ignoble fall ! 



COPLAS DE MANRIQUE. 85 

The countless treasures of his care, 
Hamlets and villas green and fair, 
His mighty power, — 
What were they all but grief and shame, 
Tears and a broken heart, when came 
The parting hour ? 

His other brothers, proud and high, 
Masters, who, in prosperity, 
Might rival kings ; 
Who made the bravest and the best 
The bondsmen of their high behest, 
Their underlings ; 

What was their prosperous estate. 
When high exalted and elate 
With power and pride ? 
What, but a transient gleam of light, 
A flame, which, glaring at its height, 
Grew dim and died ? 



8^ TRANSLATIONS. 

So many a duke of royal name, 
Marquis and count of spotless fame, 
And baron brave, 

That might the sword of empire wield, 
All these, O Death, hast thou concealed 
In the dark grave ! 

Their deeds of mercy and of arms. 
In peaceful days, or war's alarms. 
When thou dost show, 
O Death, thy stern and angry face, 
One stroke of thy all-powerful mace 
Can overthrow. 

Unnumbered hosts, that threaten nigh, 
Pennon and standard flaunting high. 
And flag displayed ; 
High battlements intrenched around, 
Bastion, and moated wall, and mound, 
And paUsade, 



COPLAS DE MANRIQUE, 87 

And covered trench, secure and deep,-** 

All these cannot one victim keep, 

O Death, from thee. 

When thou dost battle in thy wrath, 

And thy strong shafts pursue their path 

Unerringly. 

O World ! so few the years we live, 

Would that the life which thou dost give 

Were life indeed ! 

Alas ! thy sorrows fall so fast, 

Our happiest hour is when at last 

The soul is freed. 



Our days are covered o'er with grief, 

And sorrows neither few nor brief 

Veil all in gloom ; 

Left desolate of real good, 

Within this cheerless solitude 

No pleasures bloom. 



88 TRANSLATIONS. 

Thy pilgrimage begins in tears, 
And ends in bitter doubts and fears, 
Or dark despair ; 
Midway so many toils appear, 
That he who lingers longest here 
Knows most of care. 



Thy goods are bought with many a groan, 

By the hot sweat of toil alone, 

And weary hearts ; 

Fleet-footed is the approach of woe, 

But with a lingering step and slow 

Its form departs. 

And he, the good man's shield and shade, 
To whom all hearts their homage paid, 
As Virtue's son, — 
Roderic Manrique, — he whose name 
Is written on the scroll of Fame, 
Spain's champion ; 



COPLAS DE MANRIQUE. 89 

His signal deeds and prowess high 

Demand no pompous eulogy, — 

Ye saw his deeds ! 

Why should their praise in verse be sung? 

The name, that dwells on every tongue. 

No minstrel needs. 



To friends a friend ;— how kind to all 
The vassals of this ancient hall 
And feudal fief ! 

To foes how stern a foe was he ! 
And to the valiant and the free 
How brave a chief ! 

What prudence with the old and wise ; 

What grace in youthful gayeties ; 

In all how sage ! 

Benignant to the serf and slave, 

He showed the base and falsely brave 

A lion's rage. 



90 TRANSLATIONS. 

His was Octavian's prosperous star. 

The rush of Caesar's conquering car 

At battle's call ; 

His, Scipio's virtue ; his, the skill 

And the indomitable will 

Of Hannibal. 



His was a Trajan's goodness, — his 

A Titus' noble charities 

And righteous laws ; 

The arm of Hector, and the might 

Of Tully, to maintain the right 

In truth's just cause ; 

The clemency of Antonine, 
Aurelius' countenance divine, 
Firm, gentle, still; 
The eloquence of Adrian, 
And Theodosius' love to man, 
And generous will ; 



COPLAS DE MANRIQUE. 91 

In tented field and bloody fray, 
An Alexander's vigorous sway 
And stern command ; 
The faith of Constantine ; ay, more,, 
The fervent love Camillus bore 
His native land. 



He left no well-filled treasury, 

He heaped no pile of riches high, 

Nor massive plate ; 

He fought the Moors, — and, in their fall, 

Villa and tower and castled wall 

Were his estate. 

Upon the hard-fought battle-ground, 
Brave steeds and gallant riders found 
A common grave ; 

And there the warrior's hand did gain 
The rents, and the long vassal tsain, 
The conquered gave. 



TRANSLATIONS, 

And if, of old, his halls displayed 
The honored and exalted grade 
His worth had gained, 
So, in the dark, disastrous hour, 
Brothers and bondsmen of his power 
His hand sustained. 



After high deeds, not left untold. 

In the stern warfare, which of old 

'T was his to share, 

Such noble leagues he made, that more 

And fairer regions, than before. 

His guerdon were. 

These are the records, half effaced, 

Which, with the hand of youth, he traced 

On history's page ; 

But with fresh victories he drew 

Each fading character anew 

In his old age. 



CO PL AS DE MANRIQUE. 93 

By his unrivalled skill, by great 
And veteran service to the state^ 
By worth adored, 
He stood, in his high dignity, 
The proudest knight of chivalry. 
Knight of the Sword. 



He found his villas and domains 
Beneath a tyrant's galling chains 
And cruel power ; 
But, by fierce battle and blockade, 
Soon his own banner was displayed 
From every tower. 

By the tried valor of his hand. 

His monarch and his native land 

Were nobly served ; — 

Let Portugal repeat the story, 

And proud Castile, who shared the glory 

His arms deserved. 



94 TRANSLATIONS, 

And when so oft, for weal or woe. 

His life upon the fatal throw 

Had been cast down ; 

When he had served, with patriot zeal. 

Beneath the banner of Castile, 

His sovereign's crown; 

And done such deeds of valor strongs 

That neither history nor song 

Can count them all ; 

Then, on Ocana's castled rock, 

Death at his portal came to knock. 

With sudden call, — 

Saying, '' Good Cavalier, prepare 
To leave this world of toil and care 
With joyful mien ; 

Let thy strong heart of steel this day 
Put on its armor for the fray, — 
The closing scenCo 



COPLAS DE MANRIQUE, 95 

** Since thou hast been, in battle-strife. 
So prodigal of health and life, 
For earthly fame, 
Let virtue nerve thy heart again ; 
Loud on the last stern battle-plain 
They call thy name. 

** Think not the struggle that draws near 
Too terrible for man, — nor fear 
To meet the foe ; 
Nor let thy noble spirit grieve, 
Its life of glorious fame to leave 
On earth below. 



** A life of honor and of worth 
Has no eternity on earth, — 
'T is but a name ; 
And yet its glory far exceeds 
That base and sensual life, which leads 
To want and shame. 



g6 TRANSLATIONS. 

**The eternal life, beyond the sky, 
Wealth cannot purchase, nor the high 
And proud estate ; 
The soul In dalliance laid, — the spirit 
Corrupt with sin, — shall not inherit 
A joy so great. 

** But the good monk, in cloistered cell. 
Shall gain it by his book and bell. 
His prayers and tears ; 
And the brave knight, whose arm endures 
Fierce battle, and against the Moors 
His standard rears, 

** And thou, brave knight, whose hand has 
poured 
The life-blood of the Pagan horde 
O'er all the land, 

In heaven shalt thou receive, at length, • 
The guerdon of thine earthly strength 
And dauntless hand. 



CO PL AS DE MANRIQUE, 97 

" Cheered onward by this promise sure. 
Strong in the faith entire and pure 
Thou dost profess, 
Depart, — thy hope is certainty, — 
The third — the better Hfe on high 
Shalt thou possess," 

' O Death, no more, no more delay; 
My spirit longs to flee away, 
And be at rest ; 

The will of Heaven my will shall be,— 
I bow to the divine decree, 
To God's behest. 



Nly soul is ready to depart. 

No thought rebels, the obedient heart 

Breathes forth no sigh ; 

The wish on earth to linger still 

Were vain, when 't is God's sovereign will 

That we shall die. 



98 TRANSLATIONS, 

*' O thou, that for our sins didst take 
A human form, and humbly make 
Thy home on earth ; 
Thou, that to thy divinity 
A human nature didst ally 
By mortal birth, 



** And in that form didst suffer here 
Torment, and agony, and fear, 
So patiently ; 

By thy redeeming grace alone, 
And not for merits of my own, 
O, pardon me ! " 

As thus the dying warrior prayed, 
Without one gathering mist or shade 
Upon his mind ; 
Encircled by his family, 
Watched by affection's gentle eye 
So soft and kind ; 



CO PL AS DE MANRIQUE. 99 

His soul to Him, who gave it, rose ; 

God lead it to its long repose, 

Its glorious rest ! 

And, though the warrior's sun has set, 

Its light shall linger round us yet, 

Bright, radiant, blest.* 



* This poem of Manrique is a great favorite in Spain. 
No less than four poetic Glosses, or running commen- 
taries, upon it have been published, no one of which, 
however, possesses great poetic merit. That of the Car- 
thusian monk, Rodrigo de Valdepenas, is the best. It 
is known as the Glosa del Cartujo. There is also a prose 
Commentary by Luis de Aranda. 

The following stanzas of the poem were found in the 
author's pocket, after his death on the field of battle ; 

'^ O World ! so few the years we live. 
Would that the life which thou dost give 
Were life indeed ! 
Alas ! thy sorrows fall so fast. 
Our happiest hour is when at last 
The soul is freed. 



foo TRANSLATIONS. 

^'* Our days are covered o'er with grief. 
And sorrows neither few nor brief 
Veil all in gloom ; 
Left desolate of real good, 
Within this cheerless solitude 
No pleasures bloom. 

** Thy pilgrimage begins in tears 
And ends in bitter doubts and fears. 
Or dark despair ; 
Midway so many toils appear, 
That he who lingers longest here 
Knows most of care. 



it 



Thy goods are bought with many a groanc 

By the hot sweat of toil alone. 

And weary hearts ; 

Fleet-footed is the approach of woe, 

But with a lingering step and slow 

Its form departs." 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 



FROM THE SPANISH OF LOPE DE VEGA. 



Shepherd ! that with thine amorous, sylvan 

song 
Hast broken the slumber which encompassed 

me, — 
That mad'st thy crook from the accursed tree, 
On which thy powerful arms were stretched so 

long ! 
Lead me to mercy's ever-flowing fountains ; 
For thou my shepherd, guard, and guide shalt 

be ; 
I will obey thy voice, and wait to see 
Thy feet all beautiful upon the mountains. 



I02 TRANSLATIONS 

Hear, Shepherd ! — thou who for thy flock art 

dying, 
O, wash away these scarlet sins, for thou 
Rejoicest at the contrite sinner's vow. 
O, wait ! — to thee my weary soul is crying, — • 
Wait for me ! — Yet why ask it, when I see, 
With feet nailed to the cross, thou 'rt waiting 

still for me ! 



TO-MORROW. 



FROM THE SPANISH OF LOPE DE VEGA. 



Lord, what am I, that, with unceasing care, 
Thou didst seek after me, — that thou didst wait, 
Wet with unhealthy dews, before my gate, 
And pass the gloomy nights of winter there ? 
O strange delusion ! — that I did not greet 
Thy blest approach, and O, to Heaven how lost, 
If my ingratitude's unkindly frost 
Has chilled the bleeding wounds upon thy feet. 
How oft my guardian angel gently cried, 
*' Soul, from thy casement look, and thou shalt 
see 



I04 TRANSLATIONS. 

How he persists to knock and wait for thee !" 
And, O ! how often to that voice of sorrow, 
'* To-morrow we will open," I replied, 
And when the morrow came I answered still, 
** To-morrow." 



THE NATIVE LAND. 



FROM THE SPANISH OF FRANCISCO DE ALDANA. 



Clear fount of light ! my native land on high, 
Bright with a glory that shall never fade ! 
Mansion of truth ! without a veil or shade, 
Thy holy quiet meets the spirit's eye. 
There dwells the soul in its ethereal essence, 
Gasping no longer for life's feeble breath ; 
But, sentineled in heaven, its glorious presence 
With pitying eye beholds, yet fears not, death. 
Beloved country ! banished from thy shore, 
A stranger in this prison-house of clay, 



:o6 TRANSLATIONS. 

The exiled spirit weeps and sighs for thee ! 
Heavenward the bright perfections I adore 
Direct, and the sure promise cheers the way, 
That, whither love aspires, there shall my 
dwelling be. 



I 



TPIE IMAGE OF GOD. 



FROM THE SPANISH OF FRANCISCO DE ALDANA. 



O Lord ! that seest, from yon starry height, 
Centred in one the future and the past, 
Fashioned in thine own image, see how fast 
The world obscures in me what once was bright ! 
Eternal Sun ! the warmth which thou hast 

given, 
To cheer life's flowery April, fast decays ; 
Yet, m the hoary winter of my days, 
For ever green shall be my trust in Heaven. 
Celestial King ! O let thy presence pass 



io8 TRANSLATIONS. 

Before my spirit, and an image fair 

Shall meet that look of mercy from on high, 

As the reflected image in a glass 

Doth meet the look of him who seeks it there. 

And owes iU being to the gazer's eye. 



THE BROOK. 



FROM THE SPANISH. 



Laugh of the mountain ! — lyre of bird and 

tree ! 
Pomp of the meadow ! mirror of the morn 1 
The soul of April, unto whom are born 
The rose and jessamine, leaps wild in thee ! 
Although, where'er thy devious current strays, 
The lap of earth with gold and silver teems. 
To me thy clear proceeding brighter seems 
Than golden sands, that charm each shepherd's 

gaze. 
How without guile thy bosom, all transparent 
As the pure crystal, lets the curious eye 



/ 
/ 



no TRANSLATIONS. 

Thy secrets scan, thy smooth, round pebbles 

count ! 
How, without malice murmuring, glides thy 

current ! 
O sweet simplicity of days gone by ! 
Thou shun'st the haunts of man, to dwell in 

limpid fount ! 



THE CELESTIAL PILOT. 



FROM DANTE. PURGATORIO, II. 



And now, behold ! as at the approach of, morn- 
ing, 
Through the gross vapors, Mars grows fiery red 
Down in the west upon the ocean floor, 

Appeared to me, — would I again could see it !— 
A light along the sea, so swiftly coming. 
Its motion by no flight of wing is equalled. 

And when therefrom I had withdrawn a little 
Mine eyes, that I might question my con- 
ductor, 
Again I saw it brighter grown and larger. 



112 TRANSLA TIONS. 

Thereafter, on all sides of it, appeared 

T knew not what of white, and underneath, 

Little by little, there came forth another. 

My master yet had uttered not a word. 
While the first brightness into wings unfolded; 
But, when he clearly recognised the pilot. 

He cried aloud ; *' Quick, quick, and bow ths 

knee ! 
Behold the Angel of God ! fold up thy hands ! 
Henceforward shalt thou see such officers ! 

" See, how he scorns all human arguments, 

So that no oar he wants, nor other sail 

Than his own wings, between so distant shores ! 

*' See, how he holds them, pointed straight to 

heaven, 
Fanning the air with the eternal pinions. 
That do not moult themselves like mortal hair ! ^ 



THE CELESTIAL PILOT. 113 

And then, as nearer and more near us came 
The Bird of Heaven, more glorious he ap< 

peared. 
So that the eye could not sustain his presence, 

But down I cast it ; and he came to shore 
With a small vessel, gliding swift and light, 
So that the water swallowed nought thereof. 

Upon the stern stood the Celestial Pilot ! 

Beatitude seemed written in his face ! 

And more than a hundred spirits sat within. 

** In exitu Israel out of Egypt ! " 

Thus sang they all together in one voice, 

With whatso in that Psalm is after written. 

Then made he sign of holy rood upon them, 

Whereat all cast themselves upon the shore, 

And he departed swiftly as he came. 
8 



THE TERRESTRIAL PARADISE. 



FROM DANTE. PURGATORIO, XXVIII. 



Longing already to search in and round 
The heavenly forest, dense and living-green, 
Which to the eyes tempered the new-born day, 

Withouten more delay I left the bank, 
Crossing the level country slowly, slowly, 
Over the soil, that everywhere breathed fra 
grance. 

A gently-breathing air, that no mutation 
Had in itself, smote me upon the forehead, 
No heavier blow, than of a pleasant breeze. 



THE TERRESTRIAL PARADISE. 115 

Whereat the tremulous branches readily 
Did all of them bow downward towards that side 
Where its first shadow casts the Holy Moun- 
tain ; 

Yet not from their upright direction bent 
So that the little birds upon their tops 
Should cease the practice of their tuneful art ; 

But, with full-throated joy, the hours of prime 
Singing received they in the midst of foliage 
That made monotonous burden to their rhymes, 

Even as from branch to branch it gathering 

swells, 
Through the pine forests on the shore of Chiassi, 
When ^olus unlooses the Sirocco. 

Already my slow steps had led me on 
Into the ancient wood so far, that I 
Could see no more the place where I had en- 
tered. 



ii6 TRANSLATIONS. 

And lo ! my farther course cut off a river, 
Which, towards the left hand, with its Httle 

waves, 
Bent down the grass, that on its margin sprang. 

All waters that on earth most limpid are, 
Would seem to have within themselves some 

mixture, 
Compared with that, which nothing doth con- 
ceal. 

Although it moves on with a brown, brown 

current, 
Under the shade perpetual, that never 
Ray of the sun lets in, nor of the moon. 



BEATRICE. 



FROM (SANTE. PURGATORIO, XXX., XXXI. 



Even as the Blessed, in the new covenant, 
Shall rise up quickened, each one from his 

grave, 
Wearing again the garments of the flesh, 

So, upon that celestial chariot, 

A hundred rose ad vocem tanti senis, 

Ministers and messengers of life eternal. 

They all were saying ; ^' Benedictus qui venis,^^ 
And scattering flowers above and round about, 
** Manibus o date lilia plenisT 



1 1 8 TRANSLA TIONS. 

I once beheld, at the approach of day, 
The orient sky all stained with roseate hues, 
And the other heaven with light serene adorned, 

And the sun's face uprising, overshadowed, 
So that, by temperate influence of vapors, 
The eye sustained his aspect for long while ; 

Thus in the bosom of a cloud of flowers, 
Which from those hands angelic were thrown 

up, 
And down descended inside and without, 

With crown of olive o'er a snow-white veil, 
Appeared a lady, under a green mantle, 
Vested in colors of the living flame. 



Even as the snow, among the living rafters 

Upon the back of Italy, congeals, 

Blown on and beaten by Sclavonian winds, 



BEATRICE. 119 

And then, dissolving, filters through itself, 
Whene'er the land, that loses shadow, breathes. 
Like as a taper melts before a fire. 

Even such I was, without a sigh or tear, 
Before the song of those who chime for ever 
After the chiming of the eternal spheres ; 

But, when I heard in those sweet melodies 
Compassion for me, more than had they said, 
*' O wherefore, lady, dost thou thus consume 
him ? " 

The ice, that was about my heart congealed, 
To air and water changed, and, in my anguish, 
Through lips and eyes came gushing from my 
breast. 



Confusion and dismay, together mingled, 
Forced such a feeble "Yes ! " out of my mouth, 
To understand it one had need of sight. 



1 20 T RAN SLA TIONS. 

Even as a cross-bow breaks, when 't is dis 

charged, 
Too tensely drawn the bow-string and the bow, 
And with less force the arrow hits the mark ; 

So I gave way under this heavy burden. 
Gushing forth into bitter tears and sighs, 
And the voice, fainting, flagged upon its pas-- 
sage. 



SPRING. 



FROM THE FRENCH OF CHARLES D'ORLEANS, 
XV. CENTURY. 



Gentle Spring ! — in sunshine clad, 
Weil dost thou thy power display ! 

For Winter maketh the light heart sad, 

And thou, — thou makest the sad heart gay. 

He sees thee, and calls to his gloomy train, 

The sleet, and the snow, and the wind, and th^ 
rain ; 

And they shrink away, and they flee in fear, 
When thy merry step draws near. 



122 TRANSLA TIONS. 

Winter giveth the fields and the trees, so old^ 

Their beards of icicles and snow ; 
And the rain, it raineth so fast and cold, 

We must cower over the embers low; 
And, snugly housed from the wind and weather. 
Mope like birds that are changing feather. 
But the storm retires, and the sky grows clear, 

When thy merry step draws near. 

Winter maketh the sun in the gloomy sky 

Wrap him round with a mantle of cloud , 
But, Heaven be praised, thy step is nigh ; 
Thou tearest away the mournful shroud. 
And the earth looks bright, and Winter surly. 
Who has toiled for nought both late and early. 
Is banished afar by the new-born year. 
When thy merry step draws near. 



THE CHILD ASLEEP. 



FROM THE FRENCH. 



Sweet babe ! true portrait of thy father's face, 
Sleep on the bosom, that thy Hps have 
pressed ! r 

Sleep, little one ; and closely, gently place 
Thy drowsy eyelid on thy mother's breast. 

Upon that tender eye, my little friend. 

Soft sleep shall come, that cometh not to me ! 

I watch to see thee, nourish thee, defend ; — 
'T is sweet to watch for thee, — alone for thee J 



124 TRANSLATIONS. 

His arms fall down ; sleep sits upon his brow ; 
His eye is closed ; he sleeps, nor dreams ol 
harm. 
Wore not his cheek the apple's ruddy glow, 
Would you not say he slept on Death's cold 
arm ? 

Awake, my boy ! — I tremble with affright ! 

Awake, and chase this fatal thought ! — Un- 
close 
Thine eye but for one moment on the light ! 

Even at the price of thine, give me repose ! 

Sweet error ! — he but slept, — I breathe again ; — 
Come, gentle dreams, the hour of sleep be- 
guile ! 

O ! when shall he, for whom I sigh in vain. 
Beside me watch to see thy waking smile ? 



THE GRAVE, 



FROM THE ANGLO-SAXON. 



For thee was a house built 
Ere thou wert born, 
For thee was a mould meant 
Ere thou of mother camest. 
But it is not made ready, 
Nor its depth measured, 
Nor is it seen 
How long it shall be'. 
Now I bring thee 
Where thou shalt be ; 
Now I shall measure thee, 
And the mould afterwards. 



1 26 TRANSLA TIONS, 

Thy house is not 
Highly timbered, 
It is unhigh and low ; 
When thou art therein, 
The heel-ways are low^ 
The side-ways unhigh. 
The roof is built 
Thy breast full nigh, 
So thou shalt in mould 
Dwell full cold, 
Dimly and dark. 



Doorless is that house^ 
And dark it is within ; 
There thou art fast detained 
And Death hath the key. 
Loathsome is that earth-house, 
And grim within to dwell. 
There thou shalt dwell, 
And worms shall divide thee. 



THE GRAVE, 127 

Thus thou art laid, 
And leavest thy friends ; 
Thou hast no friend, 
Who will come to thee, 
Who will ever see 
How that house pleaseth thee ; 
Who will ever open 
The door for thee 
And descend after thee, 
For soon thou art loathsome 
And hateful to see. 



KING CHRISTIAN. 

A NATIONAL SONG OF DENMARK. 



FROM THE DANISH OF JOHANNES EVALD, 



King Christian stood by the lofty mast 

In mist and smoke ; 
His sword was hammering so fast, 
Through Gothic helm and brain it passed ; 
Then sank each hostile hulk and mast. 

In mist and smoke. 
** Fly ! " shouted they, " fly, he who can ! 
Who braves of Denmark's Christian 

The stroke ? " 



KmG CHRISTIAN. 129 

Nils Juel gave heed to the tempest's roar, 

Now is the hour ! 
He hoisted his blood-red flag once more, 
And smote upon the foe full sore, 
And shouted loud, through the tempest's roarj 

'* Now is the hour ! " 
** Fly ! " shouted they, *' for shelter fly! 
Of Denmark's Juel who can defy 

The power?" 

North Sea ! a glimpse of Wessel rent 

Thy murky sky ! 
Then champions to thine arms were sent ; 
Terror and Death glared where he went ; 
From the waves was heard a wail, that rent 

Thy murky sky ! 
From Denmark, thunders Tordenskiol', 
Let each to Heaven commend his soul, 

And fly ! 

Path of the Dane to fame and might ! 
Dark-rolling wave ! 



1 30 TRANSLA TIONS. 

Receive thy friend, who, scorning flighty 
Goes to meet danger with despite, 
Proudly as thou the tempest's might, 

Dark-rolling wave ! 
And amid pleasures and alarms, 
And war and victory, be thine arms 

My grave ! * 



* Nils Juei was a celebrated Danish Admiral, and 
Peder Wessel, a Vice-Admiral, who for his great prow- 
ess received the popular title of Tordenskiold, or Thun^ 
der-shield. In childhood he was a tailor's apprentice, 
and rose to his high rank before the age of twetity-eight, 
when he was killed in a duel. 



THE HAPPIEST LAND. 



FRAGMENT OF A MODERN BALLAD^ 



FROM THE GERMAN. 



There sat one day in quiet, 
By an alehouse on the Rhine, 

Four hale and hearty fellows. 
And drank the precious wine. 

The landlord's daughter filled their cups. 

Around the rustic board ; 
Then sat they all so calm and still, 

And spake not one rude word. 



132 



TRANSLATIONS. 



But, when the maid departed, 

A Swabian raised his hand, 
And cried, all hot and flushed with wine« 

** Long live the Swabian land ! 



^* The greatest kingdom upon earth 
Cannot with that compare ; 

With all the stout and hardy men 
And the nut-brown maidens there/* 



** Ha ! " cried a Saxon, laughing, — • 
And dashed his beard with wine ; 

** I had rather live in Lapland, 
Than that Swabian land of thine ! 



** The goodhest land on all this earthy 

It is the Saxon land ! 
There have I as many maidens 

As fingers on this hand ! " 



THE HAPPIEST LAND. 133 

" Hold your tongues ! both Swabian and 
Saxon ! " 

A bold Bohemian cries ; 
** If there 's a heaven upon this earth. 

In Bohemia it lies. 

** There the tailor blows the flute, 

And the cobler blows the horn, 
And the miner blows the bugle, 

Over mountain gorge and bourn." 



And then the landlord's daughter 
Up to heaven raised her hand, 

And said, *' Ye may no more contendc 
There lies the happiest land ! '* 



THE WAVE. 



FROM THE GERMAN OF TIEDGE. 



" Whither, thou turbid wave ? 
Whither, with so much haste, 
As if a thief wert thou ? '* 

** I am the Wave of Life, 
Stained with my margin's dust ; 
From the struggle and the strife 
Of the narrow stream I fly 
To the Sea's immensity, 
To wash from me the shme 
Of the muddy banks of Time." 



THE DEAD. 



FROM THE GERMAN OF KLOPSTOCK. 



How they so softly rest, 
All, all the holy dead, 
Unto whose dwelling-place 
Now doth my soul draw near ! 
How they so softly rest, 
All in their silent graves, 
Deep to corruption 
Slowly down-sinking ! 

And they no longer weep, 
Here, where complaint is still ! 
And they no longer feel. 



136 



TRANSLATIONS, 



Here, where all gladness flies ! 

And, by the cypresses 

Softly o'ershadowed, 

Until the Angel 

Calls them, they slumber ! 



THE BIRD AND THE SHIP. 



FROM THE GERMAN OF MULLER. 



** The rivers rush into the sea, 
By castle and town they go ; 
The winds behind them merrily 
Their noisy trumpets blow. 



'* The clouds are passing far and high, 
We little birds in them play ; 
And every thing, that can sing and fly. 
Goes with us, and far away. 



138 TRANSLATIONS. 

" I greet thee, bonny boat ! Whither, or whence, 
With thy fluttering golden band ? " — 

■' I greet thee, Httle bird ! To the wide sea 
I haste from the narrow land. 



** Full and swollen is every sail ; 
I see no longer a hill, 
I have trusted all to the sounding gale, 
And it will not let me stand still. 



** An-d wilt thou, little bird, go with us ? 

Thou mayest stand on the mainmast tall, 
For full to sinking is my house 
With merry companions all." — 

*' I need not and seek not company, 
Bonny boat, I can sing all alone ; 
For the mainmast tall too heavy am I, 
Bonny boat, I have wings of my own. 



THE BIRD AND THE SHIP. 139 

'* High over the sails, high over the mast, 
Who shall gainsay these joys ? 
When thy merry companions are still, at last, 
Thou shalt hear the sound of my voice. 

** Who neither may rest, nor listen may, 
God bless them every one ! 
I dart away, in the bright blue day, 
And the golden fields of the sun. 

" Thus do I sing my weary song, 
Wherever the four winds blow ; 
And this same song, my whole life long, 
Neither Poet nor Printer may know." 



WHITHER? 



FROM THE GERMAN OF MULI^ER. 



I HEARD a brooklet gushing 
From its rocky fountain near, 

Down into the valley rushing, 
So fresh and wondrous clear. 



I know not what came o'er me. 
Nor who the counsel gave ; 

But I must hasten downward, 
All with my pilgrim-stave ; 



WHITHER ? 141 

Downward, and ever farther, 

And ever the brook beside ; 
And ever fresher murmured. 

And ever clearer, the tide. 

Is this the way I was going ? 

Whither, O brooklet, say ! 
Thou hast, with thy soft murmur, 

Murmured my senses away. 

What do I say of a murmur ? 

That can no murmur be ; 
'T is the water-nymphs, that are singing 

Their roundelays under me. 

Let them sing, my friend, let them murmur. 

And wander merrily near ; 
The wheels of a mill are going 

In every brooklet clear. 



BEWARE ! 



FROM THE GERMAN. 



I KNOW a maiden fair to see, 

Take care ! 
She can both false and friendly be. 

Beware ! Beware ! 

Trust her not, 
She is fooling thee ! 



She has two eyes, so soft and brown, 

Take care ! 
She gives a side-glance and looks down. 

Beware ! Beware ! 

Trust her not, i 

She is fooling thee ! 



BEWARE f 143 



And she has hair of a golden hue, 

Take care ! 
And what she says, it is not true, 

Beware ! Beware ! 

Trust her not, 
She is fooHng thee ! 

She has a bosom as white as snow, 

Take care ! 
She knows how much it is best to show. 

Beware ! Beware ! 

Trust her not, 
She is fooling thee ! 

She gives thee a garland woven fair. 

Take care ! 
It is a fool's-cap for thee to wear, 

Beware ! Beware ! 

Trust her not, 
She is fooling thee ! 



SONG OF THE BELL, 



FROM THE GERMAN. 



Bell ! thou soundest merrily, 
When the bridal party 

To the church doth hie ! 
Bell ! thou soundest solemnly. 
When, on Sabbath morning, 

Fields deserted lie ! 

Bell ! thou soundest merrily ; 
Tellest thou at evening, 

Bed-time draweth nigh ! 
Bell ! thou soundest mournfully ; 
Tellest thou the bitter 

Parting hath gone by ! 



SONG OF THE BELL, 145 

Say ! how canst thou mourn ? 
How canst thou rejoice? 

Thou art but metal dull ! 
And yet all our sorrowings, 
And all our rejoicings, 

Thou dost feel them all ! 

God hath wonders many, 

Which we cannot fathom, 

Placed within thy form \ 

When the heart is sinking, 

Thou alone canst raise it, 

Trembling in the storm •' 
10 



THE CASTLE BY THE SEA. 



FROM THE GERMAN OF UHLAND. 



*' Hast thou seen that lordly castle, 

That Castle by the Sea ? 
Golden and red above it 

The clouds float gorgeously. 



** And fain it would stoop downward 
To the mirrored wave below ; 

And fain it would soar upward 
In the evening's crimson glow.*' 



THE CASTLE BY THE SEA. 147 

** Well have I seen that castle, 

That Castle by the Sea, 
And the moon above it standing, 

And the mist rise solemnly." 



*' The winds and the waves of ocean. 

Had they a merry chime ? 
Didst thou hear, from those lofty chambers, 

The harp and the minstrel's rhyme ? " 



" The winds and the waves of ocean. 

They rested quietly. 
But I heard on the gale a sound of wail, 

And tears came to mine eye." 

** And sawest thou on the turrets 
The King and his royal bride ? 

And the wave of their crimson mantles ? 
And the golden crown of pride ? 



148 TRANSLATIONS. 

** Led they not forth, in rapture, 

A beauteous maiden there ? 
Resplendent as the morning sun, 

Beaming with golden hair? " 

•* Well saw I the ancient parents, 

Without the crown of pride ; 
They were moving slow, in weeds of woe, 

No maiden was by their side 1 " 



THE BLACK KNIGHT. 



FROM THE GERMAN OF UHLAND. 



'T WAS Pentecost, the Feast of Gladness, 
When woods and fields put off all sadness. 

Thus began the King and spake ; 
*' So from the halls 
Of ancient Hof burg's walls, 

A luxuriant Spring shall break." 

Drums and trumpets echo loudly, 
Wave the crimson banners proudly. 

From balcony the King looked on ; 
In the play of spears, 
Fell all the cavaliers, 

Before the monarch's stalwart son. 



I50 TRANSLATIONS, 

To the barrier of the fight 
Rode at last a sable Knight. 

" Sir Knight ! your name and scutcheon, say !' 
*' Should I speak it here, 
Ye would stand aghasc with fear ; 

I 'm a Prince of mighty sway ! " 

When he rode into the lists, 

The arch of heaven grew black with mists, 

And the castle 'gan to rock. 
At the first blow, 
Fell the youth from saddle-bow, 

Hardly rises from the shock. 

Pipe and viol call the dances. 
Torch-light through the high halls glances 

Waves a mighty shadow in ; 
With manner bland 
Doth ask the maiden's hand, 

Doth with her the dance begin ; 



THE BLACK KNIGHT. \%\ 

Danced in sable iron sark, 
Danced a measure we^.d and dark, 

Coldly clasped her limbs around. 
From breast and hair 
Down fall from her the fair 

Flowerets, faded, to the ground. 

To the sumptuous banquet came 
Every Knight and every Dame. 

'Twixt son and daughter all distraught, 
With mournful mind 
The ancient King reclined, 

Gazed at them in silent thought. 

Pale the children both did look, 
But the guest a beaker took ; 

" Golden wine will make you whole ! " 
The children drank, 
Gave many a courteous thank ; 

*' O that draught was very cool ! " 



1 52 TRANSLA TIONS. 

Each the father's breast embraces, 
Son and daughter ; and their faces 

Colorless grow utterly. 
Whichever way 
Looks the fear-struck father gray. 

He beholds his children die. 



** Woe ! the blessed children both 
Takest thou in the joy of youth ; 

Take me, too, the joyless father ! 
Spake the grim Guest, 
From his hollow, cavernous breast ; 

*' Roses in the spring I gather ! " 



SONG OF THE SILENT LAND. 



FROM THE GERMAN OF SALIS. 



Into the Silent Land ! 

Ah ! who shall lead us thither ? 

Clouds in the evening sky more darkly gather, 

And shattered wrecks lie thicker on the strand. 

Who leads us with a gentle hand 

Thither, O thither, 

Into the Silent Land ? 

Into the Silent Land ! 
To you, ye boundless regions 
Of all perfection ! Tender morning-visions 
Of beauteous souls ! The Future's pledge and 
band I 



fSi TRANSLATIONS. 

Who in Life's battle firm doth stand, 
Shall bear Hope's tender blossoms 
Into the Silent Land ! 

O Land ! O Land ! 

For all the broken-hearted 

The mildest herald by our fate allotted, 

Beckons, and with inverted torch doth stand 

To lead us with a gentle hand 

Into the land of the great Departed, 

Into the Silent Land 1 



L'ENVOL 



Ye voices, that arose 

After the Evening's close, 

And whispered to my restless heart repose \ 

Go, breathe it in the ear 

Of all who doubt and fear, 

And say to them, ** Be of good cheer ! *' 



Ye sounds, so low and calm, 

That in the groves of balm 

Seemed to me like an angel's psalm ! 



156 ^ TRANSLATIONS. 

Go, mingle yet once more 

With the perpetual roar 

Of the pine forest, dark and hoar ! 



Tongues of the dead, not lost, 
But speaking from death's frost, 
Like fiery tongues at Pentecost i 

Glimmer, as funeral lamps, 

Amid the chills and damps 

Of the vast plain where Death encamps 



lALLADS 



AND 



OTHER POEMS« 



PREFACE. 



There is one poem in this volume, in refer- 
ence to which a few introductory remarks may 
be useful. It is The Children of the Lord's Slip- 
pery from the Swedish of Bi?hop Tegner ; a 
poem which enjoys no inconsiderable reputa- 
tion iii the North of Europe, and for its beauty 
and simplicity merits the attention of English 
readers. It is an Idyl, descriptive of scenes in 
a Swedish village ; and belongs to the same 
class of poems, as the Liiise of Yoss and the 
Herman7i und Dorothea of Gothe. But the 
Swedish Poet has been guided by a surer taste, 
than his German predecessors. His tone is 



i6o BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

pure and elevated ; and he rarely, if ever, mis^ 
takes what is trivial for what is simple. 

There is something patriarchal still lingering 
about rural life in Sweden, which renders it a 
fit theme for song. Almost primeval simplicity 
reigns over that Northern land, — almost primeval 
solitude and stillness. You pass out from the 
gate of the city, and, as if by magic, the scene 
changes to a wild, woodland landscape. Around 
you are forests of fir. Overhead hang the long, 
fan-like branches, trailing with moss, and heavy 
with red and blue cones. Under foot is a car- 
pet of yellow leaves ; and the air is warm and 
balmy. On a wooden bridge you cross a little 
silver stream ; and anon come forth into a 
pleasant and sunny land of farms. Wooden 
fences divide the adjoining fields. Across the 
road are gates, which are opened by troops of 
children. The peasants take off their hats as 
you pass ; you sneeze, and they cry, *' God 
biess you."' The houses in the villages and 



PREFACE, i6i 

smaller towns are all built of hewn timber, and 
for the most part painted red. The floors of 
the taverns are strewn with the fragrant tips of 
fir boughs. In many villages there are no tav- 
erns, and the peasants take turns in receiving 
travellers. The thrifty housewife shows you 
into the best chamber, the walls of which are 
hung round with rude pictures from the Bible ; 
and brings you her heavy silver spoons, — an 
heirloom, — to dip the curdled milk from the 
pan. You have oaten cakes baked some months 
before ; or bread with anise-seed and coriander 
in it, or perhaps a little pine bark. 

Meanwhile the sturdy husband has brought 
his horses from the plough, and harnessed them 
to your carriage. Solitary travellers come and 
go in uncouth one-horse chaises. Most of them 
have pipes in their mouths, and hanging around 
their necks in front, a leather wallet, in which 
they carry tobacco, and the great bank notes of 

the country, as large as your two hands. You 
II 



1 62 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

meet, also, groups of Dalekarlian peasant 
women, travelling homeward or town-ward in 
pursuit of work. They walk barefoot, carrying 
in their hands their shoes, which have high 
heels under the hollow of the foot, and soles of 
birch bark. 

Frequent, too, are the village churches, stand- 
ing by the road-side, each in its own little gar- 
den of Gethsemane. In the parish register 
great events are doubtless recorded. Some old 
king was christened or buried in that church ; 
and a little sexton, with a rusty key, shows you 
the baptismal font, or the coffin. In the church- 
yard are a few flowers, and much green grass ; 
and daily the shadow of the church spire, with 
its long tapering finger, counts the tombs, rep- 
resenting a dial-plate of human life, on which 
the hours and minutes are the graves of 
men. The stones are flat, and large, and low, 
and perhaps sunken, like the roofs of old houses. 
On some are armorial bearings ; on others only 



PREFACE. 163 

the initials of the poor tenants, with a date^ 
as on the roofs of Dutch cottages. They 
all sleep with their heads to the westward. 
Each held a lighted taper in his hand when he 
died ; and in his coffin were placed his little 
heart-treasures, and a piece of money for his 
last journey. Babes that came lifeless into the 
world were carried in the arms of gray-haired 
old men to the only cradle they ever slept in ; 
and in the shroud of the dead mother were laid 
the little garments of the child, that lived and 
died in her bosom. And over this scene the 
village pastor looks from his window in the 
stillness of midnight, and says in his heart, 
** How quietly they rest, all the departed ! " 

Near the church-yard gate stands a poor- 
box, fastened to a post by iron bands, and 
secured by a padlock, with a sloping wooden 
roof to keep off the rain. If it be Sunday, the 
peasants sit on the church steps and con their 
psalm-books. Others are coming down the 



1 64 BALLADS AND OTHEh POEMS. 

road with their beloved pastor, who talks to 
them of holy things from beneath his broad- 
brimmed hat. He speaks of fields and har- 
vests, and of the parable of the sower, that 
went forth to sow. He leads them to the Good 
Shepherd, and to the pleasant pastures of the 
spirit-land. He is their patriarch, and, like 
Melchizedek, both priest and king, though he 
has no other throne than the church pulpit. 
The women carry psalm-books in their hands, 
wrapped in silk handkerchiefs, and listen de- 
voutly to the good man's words. But the 
young men, like Gallio, care for none of these 
things. They are busy counting the plaits in 
the kirtles of the peasant girls, their number 
being an indication of the wearer's wealth. It 
may end in a wedding. 

I will endeavour to describe a village wedding 
in Sweden. It shall be in summer time, that 
there may be flowers, and in a southern prov- 
ince, that the bride may be fair. The early 



PREFACE, 165 

song of the lark and of chanticleer are mingling 
in the clear morning air, and the sun, the heav- 
enly bridegroom with golden locks, arises in 
the east, just as our earthly bridegroom with 
yellow hair, arises in the south. In the yard 
there is a sound of voices and trampling of 
hoofs, and horses are led forth and saddled. The 
steed that is to bear the bridegroom has a 
bunch of flowers upon his forehead, and a gar- 
land of corn-flowers around his neck. Friends 
from the neighbouring farms come riding in, 
their blue cloaks streaming to the wind ; and 
finally the happy bridegroom, with a whip in 
his hand, and a monstrous nosegay in the 
breast of his black jacket, comes forth from his 
chamber ; and then to horse and away, towards 
the village where the bride already sits and 
waits. 

Foremost rides the Spokesman, followed by 
some half dozen village musicians. Next comes 
the bridegroom between his two groomsmen, 



1 66 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS, 

and then forty or fifty friends and wedding 
guests, half of them perhaps with pistols and 
guns in their hands. A kind of baggage-wagon 
brings up the rear, laden with food and drink 
foi these merry pilgrims. At the entrance of 
every village stands a triumphal arch, adorned 
with flowers and ribands and evergreens ; and 
as they pass beneath it the wedding guests fire 
a salute, and the whole procession stops. And 
straight from every pocket flies a black-jack, 
filled with punch or brandy. It is passed from 
hand to hand among the crowd ; provisions are 
brought from the wagon, and after eating and 
drinking and hurrahing, the procession moves 
forward again, and at length draws near the 
house of the bride. Four heralds ride forward 
to announce that a knight and his attendants 
are in the neighbouring forest, and pray for hos^ 
pitality. " How many are you ? " asks the 
bride's father. "At least three hundred," is 
the answer ; an-d to this the host replies, *' Yes ; 



PREFACE. 167 

were you seven times as many, you should all 
be welcome ; and in token thereof receive this 
cup." Whereupon each herald receives a can 
of ale ; and soon after the whole jovial company 
comes storming into the farmer's yard, and, 
riding round the May-pole, which stands in 
the centre, alights amid a grand salute and 
flourish of music. 

In the hall sits the bride, with a crown upon 
her head and a tear in her eye, like the Virgin 
Mary in old church paintings. She is dressed 
in a red boddice and kirtle, with loose linen 
sleeves. There is a gilded belt around her 
waist ; and around her neck strings of golden 
beads, and a golden chain. On the crown rests 
a wreath of wild roses, and below it another of 
cypress. Loose over her shoulders falls her 
flaxen hair ; and her blue innocent eyes are 
fixed upon the ground. O thou good soul ! 
thou hast hard hands, but a soft heart ! Thou 
art poor. The very ornaments thou wearest 



l68 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

are not thine. They have been hired for this 
great day. Yet art thou rich ; rich in health, 
rich in hope, rich in thy first, young, fervent 
love. The blessing of heaven be upon thee ! 
So thinks the parish priest, as he joins together 
the hands of bride and bridegroom, saying in 
deep, solemn tones, — '*I give thee in marriage 
this damsel, to be thy wedded wife in all honor, 
and to share the half of thy bed, thy lock and 
key, and every third penny which you two may 
possess, or may inherit, and all the rights which 
Upland's laws provide, and the holy king Erik 
gave." 

The dinner is now served, and the bride sits 
between the bridegroom and the priest. The 
Spokesman delivers an oration after the ancient' 
custom of his fathers. He interlards it well 
with quotations from the Bible ; and invites the 
Saviour to be present at this marriage feast, as 
he was at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee. 
The table is not sparingly set forth. Each 



PREFACE. 169 

makes a long arm, and the feast goes cheerily on. 
Punch and brandy pass round between the 
courses-, and here and there a pipe is smoked, 
while waiting for the next dish. They sit long 
at table ; but, as all things must have an end, so 
must a Swedish dinner. Then the dance begins. 
It is led off by the bride and the priest, who 
perform a solemn minuet together. Not till 
after midnight comes the Last Dance. The girls 
form a ring around the bride, to keep her from 
the hands of the married women, who endeavour 
to break through the magic circle, and seize 
their new sister. After long struggling they 
succeed ; and the crown is taken from her head 
and the jewels from her neck, and her boddice is 
unlaced and her kirtle taken off; and like a vestal 
virgin clad all in white she goes, but it is to her 
marriage chamber, not to her grave ; and the 
wedding guests follow her with lighted candles 
in their hands. And this is a village bridal. 
Nor must I forget the suddenly changing sea- 



I70 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

sons of the Northern clime. There is no lonef 
and lingering spring, unfolding leaf and blossom 
one by one ; — no long and lingering autumn, 
pompous with many-colored leaves and the glow 
of Indian summers. But winter and summer are 
wonderful, and pass into each other. The quail 
has hardly ceased piping in the corn, when win- 
ter from the folds of trailing clouds sows broad- 
cast over the land snow, icicles, and rattling 
hail. The days wane apace. Ere long the sun 
hardly rises above the horizon, or does not rise 
at all. The moon and the stars shine through 
the day ; only, at noon, they are pale and wan, 
and in the southern sky a red, fiery glow, as of 
sunset, burns along the horizon, and then goes 
out. And pleasantly under the silver moon, 
and under the silent, solemn stars, ring the steel- 
shoes of the skaters on the frozen sea, and 
voices, and the sound of bells. 

And now the Northern Lights begin to burn, 
Taintly at first, hke sunbeams playing in the wa- 



PREFACE. 171 

ters of the blue sea. Then a soft crimson glo"W 
tinges the heavens. There is a blush on the 
cheek of night. The colors come and go ; and 
change from crimson to gold, from gold to 
crimson. The snow is stained with rosy light. 
Twofold from the zenith, east and west, flames 
a fiery sword ; and a broad band passes athwart 
the heavens, like a summer sunset. Soft pur- 
ple clouds come sailing over the sky, and 
through their vapory folds the winking stars 
shine white as silver. With such pomp as this 
is Merry Christmas ushered in, though only a 
single star heralded the first Christmas. And 
in memory of that day the Swedish peasants 
dance on straw ; and the peasant girls throw 
straws at the timbered roof of the hall, and for 
every one that sticks in a crack shall a grooms- 
man come to their wedding. Merry Christmas, 
indeed ! For pious souls there shall be church 
songs and sermons, but for Swedish peasants, 
brandy and nut brown ale in wooden bowls \ 



X72 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS, 

;^nd the great Yulecake crowned with a cheesCj 
and garlanded with apples, and upholding ^ 
three-armed candlestick over the Christmas 
feast. They may tell tales, too, of Jons Lunds- 
bracka, and Lunkenfus, and the great Riddar 
Finke of Pingsdaga.* 

And now the glad, leafy mid-summer, full 
of blossoms and the song of nightingales, is 
come ! Saint John has taken the flowers and 
festival of heathen Balder ; and in every village 
there is a May-pole fifty feet high, with wreaths 
and roses and ribands streaming in the wind, 
and a noisy weathercock on top, to tell the 
village whence the wind cometh and whither 
it goeth. The sun does not set till ten o'clock 
at night ; and the children are at play in the 
streets an hour later. The windows and doors 
are all open, and you may sit and read till mid- 
night without a candle. O how beautiful is 

* Titles of Swedish popular tales. 



PRE F ACL. 173 

the summer night, which is not night, but a 

\ 

Uunless yet unclouded day, descending upon 
earth with dews, and shadows, and refreshing 
coolness ! How beautiful the long, mild twi- 
light, which like a silver clasp unites to-day 
with yesterday ! How beautiful the silent hour, 
when Morning and Evening thus sit together, 
hand in hand, beneath the starless sky of mid- 
night ! From the church-tower in the public 
square the bell tolls the hour, with a soft, 
musical chime ; and the watchman, whose 
watch-tower is the belfry, blows a blast in his 
horn, for each stroke of the hammer, and four 
times, to the four corners of the heavens, in a 
sonorous voice he chaunts, — 

** Ho ! watchman, ho ! 
Twelve is the clock ! 
God keep our town 
From fire and brand 
And hostile hand ! 
Twelve is the clock I ** 



174 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS 

From his swallow's nest in the belfry he can 
see the sun all night long ; and farther north 
the priest stands at his door in the warm mid- 
night, and lights his pipe with a common burn- 
ing glass. 

I trust that these remarks will not be deemed 
irrelevant to the poem, but will lead to a clearer 
understanding of it. The translation is literal, 
perhaps to a fault. In no instance have I done 
the author a wrong, by introducing Into his 
work any supposed improvements or embellish- 
ments of my own. I have preserved even the 
measure ; that inexorable hexameter, in which, 
it must be confessed, the motions of the English 
Muse are not unlike those of a prisoner dancing 
to the music of his chains ; and perhaps, as Dr. 
Johnson said of the dancing dog, ** the wonder 
is not that she should do it so well, but that she 
should do it at all." 

Esaias Tegn^r, the author of this poem, was 
born in the parish of By in Warmland, in the 



PREFACE. 175 

year 1782. In 1799 he entered the University 
of Lund, as a student; and in 18 12 was ap- 
pointed Professor of Greek in that institution. 
In 1824 he became Bishop of Wexio, which of- 
fice he still holds. He stands first among all 
the poets of Sweden, living or dead. His prin- 
cipal work is Frithiofs Saga ; one of the most 
remarkable poems of the age. This modern 
Scald has written his name in immortal runes. 
He is the glory and boast of Sweden ; a prophet, 
honored in his own country, and adding one 
more to the list of great names, that adorn hef 
history. 



THE SKELETON IN ARMOUR. 



[T^e jbllowing Ballad was suggested to me while r id- 
ing en the seashore at Newport. A year or two previ- 
ous a skeleton had been dug up at Fall River, clad in 
broken and corroded armour ; and the idea occurred to 
me of connecting it with the Round Tower at Newport, 
generally known hitherto as the Old Wind-Mill, though 
now claimed b> the Danes as a work of their early 
ancestors. Protessor Rafn, in the Memoires de la 
Socidte Royale des Antiquaires dit Nord, for 1 838-1 839, 
says ; 

" There is no mistaking in this instance the style in 
which the more ancient stone edifices of the North were 
constructed, the style which belongs to the Roman or 
Ante-Gothic architecture, and which, especially after 
the time of Charlemagne, diffused itself from Italy over 
the whole of the West and North of Europe, where it 



THE SKELETON IN ARMOUR. 177 

continued to predominate until the close of the 12th 
ceatury. ; that style, which some authors have, from one 
of i^s most striking characteristics, called the round arch 
style, the same which in England is denominated Saxon 
and sometimes Norman architecture. 

'* On the ancient structure in Newport there are no 
ornaments remaining, which might possibly have served 
to guide us in assigning the probable date of its erection. 
That no vestige whatever is found of the pointed arch, 
nor any approximation to it, is indicative of an earlier 
rather than of a later period. From such characteristics 
as remain, however, we can scarcely form any other 
inference than one, in which I am persuaded that all, 
who are familiar with Old-Northern architecture, will 

concur, THAT THIS BUILDING WAS ERECTED AT A 
PERIOD DECIDEDLY NOT LATER THAN THE I2TH CEN- 
TURY. This remark applies, of course, to the original 
building only, and not to the alterations that it subse- 
quently received ; for there are several such alterations 
in the upper part of the building which cannot be mis- 
taken, and which were most likely occasioned by its 
being adapted in modern times to various uses, for 
example as the substructure of a wind-mill, and latterly 

as a hay magazine. To the same times may be referred 
12 



178 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

the v/indows, the fire-place, and the apertures made 
above the columns. That this building could not have 
been erected for a wind-mill, is what an architect will 
easily discern." 

I will not enter into a discussion of the point. It is 
sufficiently well established for the purpose of a ballad ; 
though doubtless many an honest citizen of Newport, 
who has passed his days within sight of the Round 
Tower, will be ready to exclaim with Sancho ; " God 
bless me ! did I not warn you to have a care of what you 
were doing, for that it was nothing but a wind-mill ; 
and nobody could mistake it, but one who had the like 
in his head."] 



** Speak 1 speak ! thou fearful guest! 
Who, with thy hollow breast 
Still in rude armour drest, 

Comest to daunt me ! 
Wrapt not in Eastern balms, 
But with thy fleshless palms 
Stretched, as if asking alms, 

Why dost thou haunt me ? '* 



THE SKELETON IN ARMOUR. i79 

Then, from those cavernous eyes 
Pale flashes seemed to rise, 
As when the Northern skies 

Gleam in December ; 
And, like the water's flow 
Under December's snow, 
Came a dull voice of woe 

From the heart's chamber. 

** I was a Viking old ! 

My deeds, though manifold, 
No Skald in song has told, 

No Saga taught thee ! 
Take heed, that in thy verse 
Thou dost the tale rehearse, 
Else dread a dead man's curse ! 

For this I sought thee. 

** Far in the Northern Land, 
By the wild Baltic's strand. 



I So BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

I, with my childish hand, 

Tamed the ger-falcon; 
And, with my skates fast-bound, 
Skimmed the half-frozen Sound, 
That the poor whimpering hound 
Trembled to v/alk on. 



** Oft to his frozen lair 
Tracked I the grisly bear. 
While from my path the hare 

Fled like a shadow ; 
Oft through the forest dark 
Followed the were-wolf's bark. 
Until the soaring lark 

Sang from the meadow. 

** But when I older grew, 
Joining a corsair's crew, 
O'er the dark sea I flew 
With the marauders. 



THE SKELETON IN ARMOUR, i8i 

Wild was the life we led ; 
Many the souls that sped, 
Many the hearts that bled. 
By our stern orders. 

** Many a wassail-bout 

Wore the long Winter out % 
Often our midnight shout 

Set the cocks crowing. 
As we the Berserk's tale 
Measured in cups of ale, 
Draining the oaken pail, 

Filled to o'erflowing. 

** Once as I told in glee 
Tales of the stormy sea, 
Soft eyes did gaze on me. 

Burning yet tender ; 
And as the white stars shine 
On the dark Norway pine, 



182 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS, 

On that dark heart of mine 
Fell their soft splendor. 

" I wooed the blue-eyed maid, 
Yielding, yet half afraid, 
And in the forest's shade 

Our vows were plighted. 
Under its loosened vest 
Fluttered her little breast, 
Like birds within their nest 

By the hawk frighted. 

** Bright in her father's hall 
Shields gleamed upon the wall, 
Loud sang the minstrels all, 

Chaunting his glory ; 
When of old Hildebrand 
I asked his daughter's hand, 
Mute did the minstrels stand 

To hear my story. 



THE SKELETON IN ARMOUR, 183 

•'^ While the brown ale he quaffed, 
Loud then the champion laughed, 
And as the wind-gusts waft 

The sea-foam brightly, 
So the loud laugh of scorn, 
Out of those lips unshorn, 
From the deep drinking-horn 

Blew the foam lightly. 

** She was a Prince's child, 
I but a Viking wild, 
And though she blushed and smiled, 

I was discarded ! 
Should not the dove so white 
Follow the sea-mew's flight, 
Why did they leave that night 

Her nest unguarded ? 

^* Scarce had I put to sea, 
Bearing the maid with me,— > 



84 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

Fairest of all was she 

Among the Norsemen ! — 
When on the white sea-strand, 
Waving his armed hand, 
Saw we old Hildebrand, 
With twenty horsemen. 



** Then launched they to the blasts 
Bent like a reed each mast, 
Yet we were gaining fast, 

When the wind failed us ; 
And with a sudden flaw 
Came round the gusty Skaw, 
So that our foe we saw 

Laugh as he hailed us. 

*' And as to catch the gale 

Round veered the flapping sail, 
Death ! was the helmsman's haiL 
Death without Quarter ! 



THE SKELETON IN ARMOUR. 

Mid-ships with iron keel 
Struck we her ribs of steel ; 
Down her black hulk did reel 
Through the black water I 

*^ As with his wings aslant, 
Sails the fierce cormorant, 
Seeking some rocky hauntj 

With his prey laden. 
So toward the open main, 
Beating to sea again, 
Through the wild hurricane, 

Bore I the maiden. 

** Three weeks we westward bore. 
And when the storm was o'er, 
Cloud- like we saw the shore 
Stretching to lea-ward ; 
There for my lady's bower 
Built I the lofty tower, 



X86 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS, 

Which, to this very hour, 

Stands looking sea-ward. 



" There Hved we many years ; 
Time dried the maiden's tears ; 
She had forgot her fears, 

She was a mother ; 
Death closed her mild blue eyes^ 
Under that tower she lies ; 
Ne'er shall the sun arise 
On such another ! 

** Still grew my bosom then, 
Still as a stagnant fen ! 
Hateful to me were men, 

The sun-light hateful ! 
In the vast forest here, 
Clad in my warlike gear, 
Fell I upon my spear, 

O, death was grateful I 



THE SKELETON IN ARMOUR, 187 

" Thus, seamed with many scars, 
Bursting these prison bars. 
Up to its native stars , 

Mv soul ascended ! 
There from the flowing bowl 
Deep drinks the warrior's soul, 
Skoal I to the Northland ! skoal I " * 
— Thus the tale ended. 



* 



In Scandanavia this is the customary salutation when 
drinking a health. I have slightly changed the orthog- 
raphy of the word, in order to preserve the correct pro- 
nunciation. 



THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS. 



It was the schooner Hesperus, 

That sailed the wintry sea ; 
And the skipper had taken his Httle daughter, 

To bear him company. 

Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax, 
Her cheeks like the dawn of day, 

And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds, 
That ope in the month of May. 

The skipper he stood beside the helm, 

With his pipe in his mouth, 
And watched how the veering flaw did blow 

The smoke now West, now South. 



THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS. 189 

Then up and spake an old Sailor, 
Had sailed the Spanish Main, 
** I pray thee, put into yonder port, 
For I fear a hurricane. 

" Last night, the moon had a golden ring, 
And to-night no moon we see ! " 
The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe. 
And a scornful laugh laughed he. 

Colder and louder blew the wind, 

A gale from the Northeast ; 
The snow fell hissing in the brine. 

And the billows frothed like yeast. 

Down came the storm, and smote amain. 

The vessel in its strength ; 
She shuddered and paused, like a frighted 
steed, 

Then leaped her cable's length. 



T90 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

■" Come hither ! come hither ! my Httle daug^h 
ter, 
And do not tremble so ; 
For I can weather the roughest gale 
That ever wind did blow." 

He wrapped her warm in his seaman' = coat 

Against the stinging blast ; 
He cut a rope from a broken spar, 

And bound her to the mast. 

** O father ! I hear the church-bells ring, 

O say, what may it be? " 
** 'T is a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast ! "- < 

And he steered for the open sea. 

** O father ! I hear the sound of guns, 

O say, what may it be ? " 
** Some ship in distress, that cannot live 

In such an angry sea ! " 



THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS. 191 

** O father ! I see a gleaming light, 

O say, what may it be ? " 
But the father answered never a word, 

A frozen corpse was he. 



Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark. 

With his face to the skies, 
The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow 

On his fixed and glassy eyes. 

Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed 

That saved she might be ; 
And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave, 

On the Lake of Galilee. 



And fast through the midnight dark and drear^* 
Through the whistling sleet and snow^ 

Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept 
Towards the reef of Norman's Woe. 



192 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS, 

And ever the fitful gusts between 
A sound came from the land ; 

It was the sound of the trampling surf, 
On the rocks and the hard sea-sand. 



The breakers were right beneath her bows, 

She* drifted a dreary wreck, 
And a whooping billow swept the crew 

Like icicles from her deck. 



She struck where the white and fleecy waves 

Looked soft as carded wool, 
But the cruel rocks, they gored her side 

Like the horns of an angry bull. 

Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice, 
With the masts went by the board ; 

Like a vessel of glass, she strove and sank. 
Ho ! ho ! the breakers roared ! 



THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS, 193 

At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach, 

A fisherman stood aghast, 
To see the form of a maiden fair. 

Lashed close to a drifting mast. 



The salt sea was frozen on her breast, 

The salt tears in her eyes ; 
And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed. 

On the billows fall and rise. 



Such was the wreck of the Hesperus, 
In the midnight and the snow ! 

Christ save us all from a death like this, 
On the reef of Norman's Woe ! 
13 



THE LUCK OF EDENHALL. 



FROM THE GERMAN OF UHLAND. 



[The tradition, upon which this ballad is founded, and 
the " shards of the Luck of Edenhall," still exist in 
England. The goblet is in the possession of Sir Christo- 
pher Musgrave, Bart., of Eden Hall, Cumberland; and 
is not so entirely shattered, as the ballad leaves it.] 



Of Edenhall, the youthful Lord 
Bids sound the festal trumpet's call ; 
He rises at the banquet board, 
And cries, 'mid the drunken revellers all, 
** Now bring me the Luck of Edenhall ! " 



THE LUCK OF EDENHALL. 195 

The butler hears the words with pain, 
The house's oldest seneschal, 
Takes slow from its silken cloth again 
The drinking glass of crystal tall ; 
They call it The Luck of Edenhall. 

Then said the Lord ; '* This glass to praise, 

Fill with red wine from Portugal ! " 

The gray-beard with trembling hand obeys ; 

A purple light shines over all, 

It beams from the Luck of Edenhall. 

Then speaks the Lord, and waves it light, 
*' This glass of flashing crystal tall 

Gave to my sires the Fountain-Sprite ; 
She wrote m\t\ If this glass doth fall 
Farewell then, Luck of Edenhall ! 

** 'T was right a goblet the Fate should' be 
Of the joyous race of Edenhall I 



J96 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS, 

Deep draughts drink we right willingly ; 
And willingly ring, with merry call, 
Kling ! klang ! to the Luck of Edenhall ! " 

First rings it deep, and full, and mild, 
Like to the song of a nightingale ; 
Then like the roar of a torrent wild ; 
Then mutters at last like the thunder's fall, 
The glorious Luck of Edenhall. 

^^ For its keeper takes a race of might. 
The fragile goblet of crystal tall ; 
It has lasted longer than is right ; 
Kling ! klang ! — with a harder blow than all 
Will I try the Luck of Edenhall ! " 

As the goblet ringing flies apart, 
Suddenly cracks the vaulted hall ; 
And through the rift, the wild flames start; 
The guests in dust are scattered all, 
With the breaking Luck of Edenhall ! 



THE LUCK OF EDENHALL. 197 

In storms the foe, with fire and sword ; 
He in the night had scaled the wall, 
Slain by the sword lies the youthful Lord, 
But holds in his hand the crystal tall, 
The shattered Luck of Edenhall. 

On the morrow the butler gropes alone, 
The gray-beard in the desert hall, 
He seeks his Lord's burnt skeleton,^ 
He seeks in the dismal ruin's fall 
The shards of the Luck of EdenhaU. 

" The stone wall," saith he, *' doth falf aside, 
Down must the stately columns fall , 
Glass is this earth's Luck and Pride ' 
In atoms shall fall this earthly ball 
One day like the Luck of Edenhall ! '' 



THE ELECTED KNIGHT 



FROM THE DANISH. 



[The following strange and somewhat mystical ballad 
is from Nyerup and Rahbek's Danske Viser of the 
Middle Ages. It seems to refer to the first preaching 
of Christianity in the North, and to the institution of 
Knight-Errantry. The three maidens I suppose to be 
Faith, Hope, and Charity. The irregularities of the orig- 
inal have been carefully preserved in the translation.] 



Sir Oluf he rldeth over the plain, 

Full seven miles broad and seven miles 
wide, 

But never, ah never can meet with the man 
A tilt with him dare ride. 



THE ELECTED KNIGHT 199 

He saw under the hill-side 

A Knight full well equipped ; 
His steed was black, his helm was barred ; 

He was riding at full speed. 



He wore upon his spurs 

Twelve little golden birds ; 
Anon he spurred his steed with a clang, 

And there sat all the birds and sang. 

He wore upon his mail 

Twelve little golden wheels ; 
Anon in eddies the wild wind blew, 

And round and round the wheels they flew. 

He wore before his breast 

A lance that was poised in rest ; 

And it was sharper than diamond-stone, 
It made Sir Oluf's heart to groan. 



200 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS, 

He wore upon his helm, 

A wreath of ruddy gold ; 
And that gave him the Maidens Three, 

The youngest was fair to behold. 

Sir Oluf questioned the Knight eftsoon 
If he were come from heaven down ; 
*' Art thou Christ of Heaven," quoth he, 
" So will I yield me unto thee." 

^* I am not Christ the Great, 

Thou shalt not yield thee yet ; 
I am an Unknown Knight, 

Three modest Maidens have mebedight." 



" Art thou a Knight elected, 

And have three Maidens thee bedight ; 
So shalt thou ride a tilt this day, 
For all the Maidens' honor ! " 



THE ELECTED KNIGHT, 20i 

The first tilt they together rode 
They put their steeds to the test ; 

The second tilt they together rode. 
They proved their manhood best 



The third tilt they together rode. 

Neither of them would yield ; 
The fourth tilt they together rode, 

They both fell on the field. 

Now lie the lords upon the plain, 
And their blood runs unto death ; 

Now sit the Maidens in the high tower. 
The youngest sorrows till death. 



THE CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S 
SUPPER. 



FROM THE SWEDISH OF BISHOP TEGNER. 



Pentecost, day of rejoicing, had come. The 

church of the village 
Stood gleamiag white in the morning's sheen. 

On the spire of the belfry, 
Tipped with a vane of metal/ the friendly flames 

of the Spring-sun 
Glanced like the tongues of fire, beheld by 

Apostles aforetime. 
Clear was the heaven and blue, and May, with 

her cap crowned with roses, 
Stood in her holiday dress in the fields, and the 

wind and the brooklet 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, 203 

Murmured gladness and peace, God's-peace ! 

With lips rosy-tinted 
Whispered the race of the flowers, and merry 

on balancing branches 
Birds were singing their carol, a jubilant hymn 

to the Highest. 
Swept and clean was the churchyard. Adorned 

like a leaf- woven arbour 
Stood its old-fashioned gate ; and within upon 

each cross of iron 
Hung was a sweet-scented garland, new twined 

by the hands of affection. 
Even the dial, that stood on a fountain among 

the departed, 
(There full a hundred years had it stood,) was 

embellished with blossoms. 
Like to the patriarch hoary, the sage of his kith 

and the hamlet, 
Who on his birth-day is crowned by children 

and children's children, 
So stood the ancient prophet, and mute with his 

pencil of iron 



S04 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

Marked on the tablet of stone, and measured 

the swift-changing moment, 
While all around at his feet, an eternity slum 

bered in quiet. 
Also the church within was adorned, for this 

was the season 
In which the young, their parents' hope, and 

the loved-ones of heaven. 
Should at the foot of the altar renew" the vows 

of their baptism. 
Therefore each nook and corner was swept and 

cleaned, and the dust w^as 
Blown from the walls and ceiling, and from the 

oil-painted benches. 
There stood the church like a garden ; the Feast 

of the Leafy Pavilions * 
Saw we in living presentment. From noble 

arms on the church wall 
Grew forth a cluster of leaves, and the preach- 

er's pulpit of oak-wood 

* The Feast of the Tabernacles ; in Swedish, Lqf 
hyddohogtideriy the Leaf-huts'-high-tide. 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 205 

Budded once more anew, as aforetime the rod 

before Aaron. 
Wreathed thereon was the Bible with leaves, 

and the dove, washed with silver, 
Under its canopy fastened, a necklace had on 

of wind-flowers. 
But in front of the choir, round the altar-piece 

painted by Horberg,"^ 
Crept a garland gigantic ; and bright-curling 

tresses of angels 
Peeped, like the sun from a cloud, out of the 

shadowy leaf-work. 
Likewise the lustre of brass, new-polished, 

blinked from the ceiling, 
And for lights there were lilies of Pentecost set 

in the sockets. 



Loud rang the bells already ; the thronging 
crowd was assembled 



* The peasant-painter of Sweden. He is known chieiiy 
by his altar-pieces in the village churches. 



2o6 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

Far from valleys and hills, to list to the holy 

preaching. 
Hark ! then roll forth at once the mighty tones 

from the organ, 
Hover like voices from God, aloft like invisible 

spirits. 
Like as Elias in heaven, when he cast off from 

him his mantle, 
Even so cast off the soul its garments of earth ; 

and with one voice 
Chimed in the congregation, and sang an an- 
them immortal 
Of the subhme Wallin,* of David's harp in the 

North-land 
Tuned to the choral of Luther ; the song on its 

powerful pinions 
Took every living soul, and lifted it gently to 

heaven, 



* A distinguished pulpit-orator and poet. He is par- 
ticularly remarkable for the beauty and sublimity of his 
psalms. 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 207 

And every face did shine like the Holy One's 

face upon Tabor. 
Lo ! there entered then into the church the 

Reverend Teacher. 

Father he hight and he was in the parish ; a 

christianly plainness 
Clothed from his head to his feet the old man 

of seventy winters. 
Friendly was he to behold, and glad as the her' 

aiding angel 

Walked he among the crowds, but still a con- 
templative grandeur 

Lay on his forehead as clear, as on moss-cov- 
ered grave-stone a sun-beam. 

As in his inspiration (an evening twilight that 
faintly 

Gleams in the human soul, even now, from the 
day of creation) 

Th' Artist, the friend of heaven, imagines Saint 
John when in Patmos ; — 

Gray, with his eyes uplifted to heaven, so 
seemed then the old man ; 



2o8 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

Such was the glance of his eye, and such were 

his tresses of silver. 
All the congregation arose in the pews that 

were numbered. 
But with a cordial look, to the right and the left 

hand, the old man 
Nodding all hail and peace, disappeared in the 

innermost chancel. 



Simply and solemnly now proceeded the 
Christian service. 

Singing and prayer, and at last an ardent dis- 
course from the old man. 

Many a moving word and warning, that out of 
the heart came 

Fell like the dew of the morning, like manna on 
those in the desert. 

Afterwards, when all was finished, the Teacher 
reentered the chancel, 

Followed therein by the young. On the right 
hand the boys had their places, 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 209 

Delicate figures, with close-curling hair and 
cheeks rosy-blooming. 

But on the left-hand of these, there stood the 
tremulous lilies, 

Tinged with the blushing light of the morning, 
the diffident maidens, — 

Folding their hands in prayer, and their eyes 
cast down on the pavement. 

Now came, with question and answer, the cate- 
chism. In the beginning 

Answered the children with troubled and falter- 
ing voice, but the old man's 

Glances of kindness encouraged them soon, and 
the doctrines eternal 

Flowed, like the waters of fountains, so clear 
from lips unpolluted. 

Whene'er the answer was closed, and as oft as 
they named the Redeemer, 

Lowly louted the boys, and lowly the maidens 
all courtesied. 

F/iendly the Teacher stood, like an angel of 

light there among them, 
14 



2IO BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

And to the children explained he the holy, the 

highest, in few words, 
Thorough, yet simple and clear, for sublimity 

always is simple, 
Both in sermon and song, a child can seize on 

its meaning. 
Even as the green-growing bud is unfolded 

when Spring-tide approaches 
Leaf by leaf is developed, and, warmed by the 

radiant sunshine. 
Blushes with purple and gold, till at last the 

perfected blossom 
Opens its odorous chalice, and rocks with its 

crown in the breezes. 
So was unfolded here the Christian lore of sal- 
vation, 
Line by line from the soul of childhood. The 

fathers and mothers 
Stood behind them in tears, and were glad at 

each well-worded answer. 

Now went the old man up to the altar ;-^aiid 
straightway transfigured 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD '5 SUPPER, 211 

(So did it seem unto me) was then the affection- 
ate Teacher. 

Like the Lord's Prophet sublime, and awful as 
Death and as Judgment 

Stood he, the God-commissioned, the soul- 
searcher, earthward descending. 

Glances, sharp as a sword, into hearts, that to 

him were transparent 
Shot he ; his voice was deep, was low like the 

thunder afar off. 
So on a sudden transfigured he stood there, he 

spake and he questioned. 



**This is the faith of the Fathers, the faith 

the Apostles delivered. 
This is moreover the faith whereunto I baptized 

you, while still ye 
Lay on your mothers' breasts, and nearer the 

portals of heaven. 
Slumbering received you then the Holy Church 

in its bosom ; 



212 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS, 

Wakened from sleep are ye now, and the light 
in its radiant splendor 

Rains from the heaven downward ; — to-day on 
the threshold of childhood 

Kindly she frees you again, to examine and 
make your election, 

For she knows nought of compulsion, only con- 
viction desireth. 

This is the hour of your trial, the turning-point 
'of existence, 

Seed for the coming days ; without revocation 
departeth 

Now from your lips the confession ; Bethink ye, 
before ye make answer ! 

Think not, O think not with guile to deceive the 
questioning Teacher. 

Sharp is his eye to-day, and a curse ever rests 
upon falsehood. 

Enter not with a lie on Life's journey ; the mul- 
titude hears you. 

Brothers and sisters and parents, what dear upoi7 
earth is and holy 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 213 

Standeth before your sight as a witness ; the 

Judge everlasting 
Looks from the sun down upon you, and angels 

in waiting beside him 
Grave your confession in letters of fire, upon 

tablets eternal. 
Thus then, — believe ye in God, in the Father 

who this world created ? 
Him who redeemed it, the Son, and the Spirit 

where both are united ? 
Will ye promise me here, (a holy promise !) to 

cherish 
God more than all things earthly, and every 

man as a brother ? 
Will ye promise me here, to confirm your faith 

by your living, 
Th' heavenly faith of affection ! to hope, to for- 
give, and to suffer, 
Be what it may your condition, and walk before 

God in uprightness ? 
Will ye promise me this before God and man ? * 

— With a clear voice 



214 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

Answered the young men Yes ! and Yes ! with 
lips softly-breathing 

Answered the maidens eke. Then dissolved 
from the brow of the Teacher 

Clouds with the thunders therein, and he spake 
on in accents more gentle, 

Soft as the evening's breath, as harps by Baby- 
lon's rivers. 



'* Hail, then, hail to you all! To the heir- 
dom of heaven be ye welcome ! 

Children no more from this day, but by cove- 
nant brothers and sisters ! 

Yet, — for what reason not children ? Of such is 
the kingdom of heaven. 

Here upon earth an assemblage of children, in 
heaven one father. 

Ruling them as his own household, — forgiving in 
turn and chastising. 

That is of human life a picture, as Scripture has 
taught us. 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 215 

Blessed are the pure before God ! Upon purity 
and upon virtue 

Resteth the Christian Faith ; she herself from 
on high Is descended. 

Strong as a man and pure as a child, is the sum 
of the doctrine, 

Which the Godlike delivered, and on the cross 
suffered and died for. 

01 as ye wander this day from childhood's sa- 
cred asylum 

Downward and ever downward, and deeper In 

Age's chill valley, 
O ! how soon will ye come, — too soon ! — and 

long to turn backward 
Up to its hill-tops again, to the sun-illumined, 

where Judgment 
Stood like a father before you, and Pardon, clad 

like a mother, 
Gave you her hand to kiss, and the loving heart 

was forgiven, 
Life was a play and your hands grasped aftef 

the roses of heaven ! 



2i6 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS, 

Seventy years have I lived already ; the fathel 

eternal 
Gave to me gladness and care ; but the loveliest 

hours of existence, 

When I have steadfastly gazed in their eyes, I 
have instantly known them, 

Known them all, all again ; — they were my child- 
hood's acquaintance. 

Therefore take from henceforth, as guides in the 
paths of existence, 

Prayer, with her eyes raised to heaven, and In- 
nocence, bride of man's childhood. 

Innocence, child beloved, is a guest from the 
world of the blessed. 

Beautiful, and in her hand a lily ; on life's roar^ 
ing billows 

Swings she in safety, she heedeth them not, in 
the ship she is sleeping. 

Calmly she gazes around in the turmoil of men ; 
in the desert 

Angels descend and minister unto her ; she her« 
self knoweth 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD '5 SUPPER. 215 

Naught of her glorious attendance ; but follows 
faithful and humble, 

Follows so long as she may her friend ; O do 
not reject her, 

For she cometh from God and she holdeth the 
keys of the heavens. — 

Prayer is Innocence' friend ; and willingly flieth 
incessant 

'Twixt the earth and the sky, the carrier-pigeon 
of heaven. 

Son of Eternity, fettered in Time, and an exile, 
the Spirit 

Tugs at his chains evermore, and struggles like 
flames ever upward. 

Still lie recalls with emotion his father's mani- 
fold mansions, 

Thinks of the land of his fathers, w^here blos- 
somed more freshly the flowers. 

Shone a more beautiful sun, and he played with 
the winged angels. 

Then grows the earth too narrow, too close ; 
and homesick for heaven 



2i8 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

Longs the wanderer again ; and the Spirit's 
longings are worship ; 

Worship is called his most beautiful hour, and 
its tongue is entreaty. 

Ah ! when the infinite burden of life descendeth 
upon us, 

Crushes to earth our hope, and, under the earth, 
in the grave-yard, — 

Then it is good to pray unto God ; for his sor- 
rowing children 

Turns he ne'er from his door, but he heals and 
helps and consoles them. 

Yet it is better to pray when all things are pros- 
perous with us. 

Pray in fortunate days, for life's most beautiful 
Fortune 

Kneels down before the Eternal's throne ; and, 
with hands interfolded, 

Praises thankful and moved the only giver of 
blessings. 

Or do ye know, ye children, one blessing that 
comes not from Heaven ? 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, 215 

What has mankind forsooth, the poor ! that it 

has not received ? 
Therefore, fall in the dust and pray ! The 

seraphs adoring 
Cover with pinions six their face in the glory ol 

him who 
Hung his masonry pendant on naught, when the 

world he created. 
Earth declareth his might, and the firmament 

uttereth his glory. 
Races blossom and die, and stars fall downward 

from heaven, 
Downward like withered leaves ; at the last 

stroke of midnight, millenniums 
Lay themselves down at his feet, and he sees 

them, but counts them as nothing. 
Who shall stand in his presence ? The wrath of 

the judge is terrific. 
Casting the insolent down at a glance. When 

he speaks in his anger 
Hillocks skip like the kid, and mountains leap 

like the roe-buck. 



220 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

Yet, — why are ye afraid, ye children ? This 

awful avenger, 
Ah ! is a merciful God ! God's voice was not 

in the earthquake 
Not in the fire, nor the storm, but it was in the 

whispering breezes. 
Love is the root of creation ; God's essence ; 

worlds without number 
Lie in his bosom like children ; he made them 

for this purpose only. 
Only to love and to be loved again, he breathed 

forth his spirit 
Into the slumbering dust, and upright standing, 

it laid its 
Hand on its heart, and felt it was warm with a 

flame out of heaven. 
Quench, O quench not that flame ! It is the 

breath of your being. 
Love is life, but hatred is death. Not father, 

nor mother 
Loved you, as God has loved you ; for 'fe way 

that you may be happy 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, 221 

Gave he his only son. When he bowed down 

his head in the death-hour 
Solemnized Love its triumph ; the sacrifice then 

was completed. 
Lo ! then was rent on a sudden the vail of the 

temple, dividing 
Earth and heaven apart, and the dead from their 

sepulchres rising 
Whispered with pallid lips and low in the ears 

of each other 
Th' answer, but dreamed of before, to creation's 

enigma, — Atonement ! 
Depths of Love are Atonement's depths, for 

Love is Atonement. 
Therefore, child of mortality, love thou the 

merciful Father ; 

Wish what the Holy One wishes, and not from 

fear, but affection ; 
Fear is the virtue of slaves ; but the heart that 

loveth is willing ; 
Perfect was before God, and perfect is Love, 

and Love only. 



222 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

Lovest thou God as thou oughtest, then lovest 

thou likewise thy brethren ; 
One is the sun in heaven, and one, only one, is 

Love also. 
Bears not each human figure the godlike stamp 

on his forehead ? 
Readest thou not in his face thine origin ? Is 

he not sailing 
Lost like thyself on an ocean unknown, and is 

he not guided 
By the same stars that guide thee ? Why 

shouldst thou hate then thy brother ? 
Hateth he thee, forgive ! For 't is sweet to 

stammer one letter 
Of the Eternal's language ; — on earth it is called 

Forgiveness ! 
Knowest thou Him, who forgave, with the crown 

of thorns round his temples ? 
Earnestly prayed for his foes, for his murderers ? 

Say, dost thou know him ? 
Ah ! thou confessest his name, so follow like* 

wise his example, 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 223 

Think of thy brother no ill, but throw a veil 
I over his failings, 

Guide the erring aright ; for the good, the 

heavenly shepherd 
Took the lost lamb in his arms, and bore it back 

to its mother. 
This is the fruit of Love, and it is by its fruits 

that we know it. 
Love is the creature's welfare, with God ; but 

Love among mortals 
Is but an endless sigh ! He longs, and endures, 

and stands waiting. 
Suffers and yet rejoices, and smiles with tears 

on his eyelids. 

Hope, — so is called upon earth, his recompense. 

— Hope, the befriending. 
Does what she can, for she points evermore up 

to heaven, and faithful 
Plunges her anchor's peak in the depths of the 

grave, and beneath it 
Paints a more beautiful world, a dim, but a 

sweet play of shadows ! 



224 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

Races, better than we, have leaned on hen 

wavering promise, 
Having naught else beside Hope. Then praise 

we our Father in heaven, 
Him, who has given us more ; for to us has 

Hope been illumined, 
Groping no longer in night ; she is Faith, she is 

living assurance. 
Faith is enlightened Hope ; she is light, is the 

eye of affection, 

Dreams of the longing interprets, and carves 

their visions in marble. 
Faith is the sun of life ; and her countenance 

shines like the Prophet's, 
For she has looked upon God ; the heaven on 

its stable foundation 
Draws she with chains down to earth, and the 

New Jerusalem sinketh 
Splendid with portals twelve in golden vapors 

descending. 
There enraptured she wanders, and looks at the 

figures majestic, 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 225 

Fears not the winged crowd, in the midst Qi 
them all is her homestead. 

Therefore love and believe j for works will fol 

low spontaneous 
Even as day does the sun ; the Right from the 

Good is an offspring, 

Love in a bodily shape ; and Christian works 
are no more than 

Animate Love and faith, as flowers are the ani- 
mate spring-tide. 

Works do follow us all unto God ; there stand 
and bear witness 

Not what they seemed, — but what they Avere 
only. Blessed is he w^ho 

Hears their confession secure ; they are mute 
upon earth until death's hand 

Opens the fbouth of the silent. Ye children, 
does Death e'er alarm you ? 

Death is the brother of Love, twin-brother is he, 
and is only 

More austere to behold. With a kiss upon lips 

that are fading 
* 15 



726 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS, 

Takes he the soul and departs, and rocked in 

the arms of affection, 
Places the ransomed child, new born, Tore the 

face of its father. 
Sounds of his coming already I hear, — see dimly 

his pinions, 
Swart as the night, but with stars strewn upon 

them ! I fear not before him. 
Death is only release, and in mercy is mute. 

On his bosom 
Freer breathes, in its coolness, my breast ; and 

face to face standing 
Look I on God as he is, a sun unpolluted by 

vapors ; 
Look on the light of the ages I loved, the spirits 

majestic. 
Nobler, better than I ; they stand by the throne 

all transfigured. 
Vested in white, and with harps of gold, and 

are singing an anthem. 
Writ in the climate of heaven, in the languag'a 

spoken by angels. 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 227 

/ 
You, in like manner, ye children beloved, he 

one day j^hall gather, 

Never forgets he the weary ; — then welcome, ye 
loved ones, hereafter ! 

Meanwhile forget not the keeping of vows, for- 
get not the promise, 

Wander from holiness onward to holiness ; earth 
shall ye heed not ; 

Earth is but dust and heaven is light ; I have 
pledged you to heaven. 

God of the Universe, hear me ! thou fountain of 

Love everlasting, 
Hark to the voice of thy servant ! I send up 

my prayer to thy heaven ! 
Let me hereafter not miss at thy throne one 

spirit of all these, 
Whom thou hast given me here ! I have loved 

them all like a father. 
May they bear witness for me, that I taught 

them the way of salvation. 
Faithful, so far as I knew of thy word ; again 

may they know me, 



226 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

Fall on their Teacher's breast, and before thy 

face may I place them, 
Pure as they now are, but only more tried, and 

exclaiming with gladness. 
Father, lo ! I am here, and the children, whom 

thou hast given me ! " 



Weeping he spake in these words ; and now 

at the beck of the old man 
Knee against knee they knitted a wreath round 

the altar's enclosure. ' 
Kneeling he read then the prayers of the con- 
secration, and softly 
With him the children read ; at the close, with 

tremulous accents. 
Asked he the peace of heaven, a benediction 

upon them. 
Now should have ended his task for the day ; 

the following Sunday 
Was for the young appointed to eat of the 

Lord's holy Supper. 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 22^ 

Sudden, as struck from the clouds, stood the 

Teacher silent and laid his 
Hand on his forehead, and cast his looks up« 

■ ward ; while thoughts high and holy- 
Flew through the midst of his soul, and his eyes 

glanced with wonderful brightness. 
** On the next Sunday, who knows ! perhaps I 

shall rest in the grave-yard ! 
Some one perhaps of yourselves, a lily broken 

untimely, 
Bow down his head to the earth ; why delay I ? 

the hour is accomplished. 
Warm is the heart ; — I will so ! for to-day grows 

the harvest of heaven. 
What I began accomplish I now ; for what fail- 
ing therein is 

I, the old man, will answer to God and the 
reverend father. 

Say to me only, ye children, ye denizens new- 
come in heaven, 

Are ye ready this day to eat of the bread of 
Atonement ? 



230 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

What it denoteth, that know ye full well, I have 
told it you often. 

Of the new covenant a symbol it is, of Atone- 
ment a token, 

Stablished between earth and heaven. Man by 
his sins and transgressions 

Far has wandered from God, from his essence. 
'T was in the beginning 

Fast by the Tree of Knowledge he fell, and it 
hangs its crown o'er the 

Fall to this day ; in the Thought is the Fall ; 
in the Heart the Atonement. 

Infinite is the fall, the Atonement infinite like- 
wise. 

See ! behind me, as far as the old man re- 
members, and forward, 

Far as Hope in her flight can reach with her 
wearied pinions. 

Sin and Atonement incessant go through the 
lifetime of mortals. 

Brought forth is sin full-grown ; but Atone- 
ment sleeps in our bosoms 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 231 

Still as the cradled babe ; and dreams of heaven 
and of angels, 

Cannot awake to sensation ; is like the tones in 
the harp's strings, 

Spirits imprisoned, that wait evermore the de- 
liverer's finger. 

Therefore, ye children beloved, descended the 

Prince of Atonement, 
Woke the slumberer from sleep, and she stands 

now with eyes all resplendent, 
Bright as the vault of the sky, and battles with 

Sin and o'ercomes her. 
Downward to earth he came and transfigured, 

thence reascended, 
Not from the heart in like wise, for there he still 

lives in the Spirit, 
Loves and atones evermore. So long as Time 

is, is Atonement. 
Therefore with reverence receive this day her 

visible token. 
Tokens are dead if the things do not live. The 

light everlasting 



232 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

Untt) the blind man is not, but is born of the 

eye that has vision. 
Neither in bread nor in wine, but in the heart 

that is hallowed 
Lieth forgiveness enshrined ; the intention alone 

of amendment 
Fruits of the earth ennobles to heavenly things, 

and removes all 
Sin and the guerdon of sin. Only Love with 

his arms wide extended, 
Penitence weeping and praying ; the Will that 

is tried, and whose gold flows 
Purified forth from the flames ; in a word, man- 
kind by Atonement 
Breaketh Atonement's bread, and drinketh 

Atonement's wine-cup. 
But he who cometh up hither, unworthy, with 

hate in his bosom. 
Scoffing at men and at God, is guilty of Christ's 

blessed body. 
And the Redeemer's blood ! To himself he 

eateth and drinketh 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, 233 

Death and doom ! And from this, preserve us, 

thou heavenly Father 1 
Are ye ready, ye children, to eat of the bread 

of Atonement ? " 
Thus with emotion he asked, and together an- 
swered the children 
Yes ! with deep sobs interrupted. Then read 

he the due supplications, 
Read the Form of Communion, and in chimed 

the organ and anthem ; 
O ! Holy Lamb of God, who takest away our 

transgressions. 
Hear us ! give us thy peace ! have mercy, have 

mercy upon us ! 
Th' old man, with trembling hand, and heavenly 

pearls on his eyelids. 
Filled now the chalice and paten, and dealt 

round the mystical symbols. 
O ! then seemed it to me, as if God, with the 

broad eye of mid-day, 
Clearer looked in at the windows, and all th& 

trees in the churchyard 



234 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 

Bowed down their summits of green, and the 
grass on the graves 'gan to shiver. 

But in the children, (I noted it well ; I knew it) 
there ran a 

Tremor of holy rapture along through their icy- 
cold members. 

Decked like an altar before them, there stood 
the green earth, and above it 

Heaven opened itself, as of old before Stephen ; 
there saw they 

Radiant in glory the Father, and on his right 

hand the Redeemer. 
Under them hear they the clang of harpstrings, 

and angels from gold clouds 

Beckon to them like brothers, and fan with 
their pinions of purple. 



Closed was the Teacher's task, and with 
heaven in their hearts and their faces, 
Up rose the children all, and each bowed him, 
weeping full sorely, 



CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, 235 

Downward to kiss that reverend hand, but all 
of them pressed he 

Moved to his bosom, and laid, with a prayer, 
his hands full of blessings, 

Now on the holy breast, and now on the inno- 
cent tresseSo 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH, 



Under a spreading chestnut tree 
The village smithy stands ; 

The smith, a mighty man is he, 
With large and sinewy hands ; 

And the muscles of his brawny arms 
Are strong as iron bands. 

His hair is crisp, and black, and long. 

His face is like the tan ; 
His brow is wet with honest sweat, 

He earns whate'er he can. 
And looks the whole world in the facCg 

For he owes not any man. 



2^ ' MISCELLANEOUS. 

Week in, week out, from morn till night, 
You can hear his bellows blow ; 

Vou can hear him swing his heavy sledge. 
With measured beat and slow, 

Like a sexton ringing the village bell, 
When the evening sun is low. 

And children coming home from school 

Look in at the open door ; 
They love to see the flaming forge, 

And hear the bellows roar, 
And catch the burning sparks that fly 

Like chaff from a threshing floor. 

He goes on Sunday to the church. 

And sits among his boys ; 
He hears the parson pray and preachy 

He hears his daughter's voice, 
Singing in the village choir. 

And it makes his heart rejoice. 



THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH, 241 

It sounds to him like her mother's voice. 

Singing in Paradise ! * 
He needs must think of her once more, 

How in the grave she hes ; 
And with his hard, rough hand he wipes 

A tear out of his eyes. 

Toiling, — rejoicing, — sorrowing, 

Onward through life he goes ; 
Each morning sees some task begin, 

Each evening sees it close ; 
Something attempted, something done. 

Has earned a night's repose. 

Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend. 
For the lesson thou hast taught ! 

Thus at the flaming forge of life 
Our fortunes must be wrought ; 

Thus on its sounding anvil shaped 

Each burning deed and thought ! 
16 



ENDYMION. 



The rising moon has hid the stars ; 

Her level rays, like golden bars, 
Lie on the landscape green, 
With shadows brown between. 

And silver white the river gleams. 
As if Diana, in her dreams, 
Had dropt her silver bow 
Upon the meadows low. 

On such a tranquil night as this. 
She woke Endymion with a kiss. 
When, sleeping in the grove, 
He dreamed not of her love. 



ENDYMION. 243 

Like Dianas kiss, unasked, unsought. 
Love gives itself, but is not bought ; 

Nor voice, nor sound betrays 

Its deep, impassioned gaze. 



It comes, — the beautiful, the free. 
The crown of all humanity, — 

In silence and alone 

To seek the elected one. 

It lifts the boughs, whose shadows deep. 
Are Life's oblivion, the soul's sleep, 
And kisses the closed eyes 
Of him, who slumbering lies. 



O, weary hearts ! O, slumbering eyes ! 
O, drooping souls, whose destinies 

Are fraught with fear and pain, 

Ye shall be loved again 1 



B44 MISCELLANEOUS, 

No one is so accursed by fate, 

No one so utterly desolate, 

But some heart, though unknown, 
Responds unto his own. 



Responds, — as if with unseen wings, 
A breath from heaven had touched its strings ; 
And whispers, in its song, 
** Where hast thou stayed so long ? " 



THE TWO LOCKS OF HAIR. 



FROM THE GERMAN OF PFIZER. 



A YOUTH, light-hearted and content, 
I wander through the world ; 

Here, Arab-hke, is pitched my tent 
And straight again is furled. 

Yet oft I dream, that once a wife 
Close in my heart was locked, 

And in the sweet repose of life 
A blessed child I rocked. 

I wake 1 Away that dream, — away f 

Too long did it remain ! 
So long, that both by night and day 

It ever comes again. 



2^6 MISCELLANEOUS. 

The end lies ever in my thought ; 

To a grave so cold and deep 
The mother beautiful was brought ; 

Then dropt the child asleep. 

But now the dream is wholly o'er, 

I bathe mine eyes and see ; 
And wander through the world once more, 

A youth so Hght and free. 

Two locks, — and they are wondrous fair, — 

Left me that vision mild ; 
The brown is from the mother's hair. 

The blond is from the child. 

And when I see that lock of gold, 

Pale grows the evening-red ; 
And when the dark lock I behold, 

I wish that I were dead. 



IT IS NOT ALWAYS MAY. 



No hay pajaros en los nidos de antano. 

Spanish ProverK 

The sun is bright, — the air is clear, 
The darting swallows soar and sing, 

And from the stately elms I hear 
The blue-bird prophesying Spring. 



"Sg blue yon winding river flows. 
It seems an outlet from the sky, 

Where waiting till the west wind blows. 
The freighted clouds at anchor He. 



2^S MISCELLANEOUS. 

All tMngs are new ; — the buds, the leaves, 
That gild the elm-tree's nodding crest^ 

And even the nest beneath the eaves ;-^ 
There are no birds in last year's nest ! 

All things rejoice in youth and love, 
The fulness of their first delight ! 

And learn from the soft heavens above 
The melting tenderness of night. 

Maiden, that read'st this simple rhyme, 
Enjoy thy youth, it will not stay ; 

Enjoy the fragrance of thy prime, 
For 1 it is not always May ! 

Enjoy the Spring of Love and Youth, 
To some good angel leave the rest ; 

For Time will teach thee soon the truth, 
There are no birds in last year's nest ! 



THE RAINY DAY 



The day is cold, and dark, and dreary ', 
It rains, and the wind is never weary ; 
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall, 
But at every gust the dead leaves fall, 
And the day is dark and dreary. 



My life is cold, and dark, and dreary ; 
It rains, and the wind is never weary ; 
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past^ 
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast 
And the days are dark and dreary. 



2SO MISCELLANEOUS. 

Be still, sad heart ! and cease repining ; 
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining ; 
Thy fate is the common fate of all, 
Into each life some rain must fall, 

Some days must be dark and dreary. 



GOD'S-ACRE. 



I LIKE that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls 
The burial-ground God's- Acre ! It is just ; 

It consecrates each grave within its walls, 
And breathes a benison o'er the sleeping 
dust 

God's- Acre ! Yes, that blessed name imparts 
Comfort to those, who in the grave have 
sown 
The seed, that they had garnered in theif 
hearts. 
Their bread of Hfe, alas ! no more their own. 



252 MISCELLANEOUS^. 

Into its furrows shall we all be cast, 

In the sure faith, that we shall rise again 

At the great harvest, when the arch-angel's 
blast 
Shall winnow, like a fan, the chaff and grain. 

Then shall the good stand in immortal bloom, 
In the fair gardens of that second birth ; 

And each bright blossom, mingle its perfume 
With that of flowers, which never bloomed 
on earth. 

With thy rude ploughshare, Death, turn up the 
sod. 
And spread the furrow for the seed we sow ; 
This is the field and Acre of our God. 

This is the place, where humai?» harvests 
grow I 



TO THE RIVER CHARLES. 



River ! that in silence windest 

Through the meadows, bright and free. 
Till at length thy rest thou findest 

In the bosom of the sea ! 

Four long years of mingled feeling, 

"Half in rest, and half in strife, 
I have seen thy waters stealing 
Onward, like the stream of life. 

Thou has taught me, Silent River! 

Many a lesson, deep and long ; 
Thou hast been a generous giver ; 

I can give thee but a song. 



254 MISCELLANEOUS, 

Oft in sadness and in illness, 

I have watched thy current glide, 

Till the beauty of its stillness 
Overflowed me, like a tide. 



And in better hours and brighter, 
When I saw thy waters gleam, 

I have felt my heart beat lighter, 
And leap onward with thy stream. 



Not for this alone I love thee, 
Nor because, thy waves of blue 

From celestial seas above thee 
Take their own celestial hue. 



Where yon shadowy woodlands hide thee. 

And thy waters disappear. 
Friends I love have dwelt beside thee, 

And have made thy margin dear. 



, TO THE RIVER CHARLES. 255 

More than this ; — thy name reminds me 
Of three friends, all true and tried ; 

And that name, like magic, binds me 
Closer, closer to thy side. 

Friends my soul with joy remembers \ 
How like quivering flames they starts 

When I fan the living embers * 

On the hearth-stone of my heart ! 

*T is for this, thou Silent River ! 

That my spirit leans to thee ; 
Thou hast been a generous giverg 

Take this idle song from me. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 



Blind Bartimeus at the gates 

Of Jericho in darkness waits ; 

He hears the crowd ; — he hears a breath 

Say, " It is Christ of Nazareth ! " 

And calls, in tones of agony, 

'Jt/ctoO, iXirjaov fie / 

The thronging multitudes increase ; 
Blind Bartimeus, hold thy peace ! 
But still, above the noisy crowd, 
The beggar's cry is shrill and loud ; 
Until they say, *' He calleth thee ! " 
Qdpaei, eyeLpat, (pcovel ae/ 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 257 

Then saith the Christ, as silent stands 

The crowd, " What wilt thou at my hands ? " 

And he replies, *' O give me light ! 

Rabbi, restore the blind man's sight. 

And Jesus answers, "Tirade' 

*II 7r/<7Tt9 crov (TeacoKi ere / 

Ye that have eyes, yet cannot see, 

In darkness and in misery. 

Recall those mighty Voices Three^ 

^IrjaoVy i\€7ja6v fi€ / 

Odpcret^ eyeipat, vTraye ! 

'JEf TTidTi^ GOV creaayKk ae / 



THE GOBLET OF LIFE. 



Filled is Life's goblet to the brim ; 
And though my eyes with tears are dim^ 
I see its sparkHng bubbles swim, 
And chaunt a melancholy hymn 
With solemn voice and slow. 



No purple flowers,— no garlands green, 
Conceal the goblet's shade or sheen, 
Nor maddening draughts of Hippocrene, 
Like gleams of sunshine, flash between 
Thick leaves of mistletoe. 



THE GOBLET OF LIFE, 259 

This goblet, wrought with curious art. 
Is filled with waters, that upstart, 
When the deep fountains of the heart, 
By strong convulsions rent apart, 
Are running all to waste. 

And as it mantling passes round. 
With fennel is it wreathed and crowned, 
Whose seed and foliage sun-imbrowned 
Are in its waters steeped and drowned, 
And give a bitter taste. 

Above the lowly plants it towers. 
The fennel, with its yellow flowers, 
And in an earlier age than ours 
Was gifted with the wondrous powers. 
Lost vision to restore. 

It gave new strength, and fearless mood \ 
And gladiators, fierce and rude. 
Mingled it in their daily food ; 



26o MISCELLANEOUS. 

And he who battled and subdued, 
A wreath of fennel wore. 

Then in Life's goblet freely press. 
The leaves that give it bitterness, 
Nor prize the colored waters less. 
For in thy darkness and distress 

New light and strength they give 1 

And he who has not learned to know 
How false its sparkling bubbles show. 
How bitter are the drops of woe, 
With which its brim may overflow. 
He has not learned to live. 

The prayer of Ajax was for light ; 
Through all that dark and desperate fight. 
The blackness of that noonday night, 
He asked but the return of sight, 
To see his foeman's face. 



THE GOBLET OF LIFE, 261 

Let our unceasing, earnest prayer 
Be, too, for light, — for strength to bear 
Our portion of the weight of care;. 
That crushes into dumb despair 
One half the human race. 

O suffering, sad humanity ! 

ye afflicted ones, who lie 
Steeped to the lips in misery, 
Longing, and yet afraid to die, 

Patient, though sorely tried ! 

1 pledge you in this cup of grief, 
Where floats the fennel's bitter leaf ! 
The Battle of our Life is brief, 

The alarm, — the struggle, — the relief,— 
Then sleep we side by side. 



MAIDENHOOD. 



Maiden ! with the meek, brown eyes, 
In whose orbs a shadow Hes 
Like the dusk in evening skies ! 

Thou whose locks outshine the sun. 
Golden tresses, wreathed in one, 
As the braided streamlets run ! 

Standing, with reluctant feet, 
Where the brook and river meet, 
Womanhood and childhood fleet ! 



MAIDENHOOD. 263 

Gazing, with a timid glance, 
On the brooklet's swift advance. 
On the river's broad expanse ! 

Deep and still, that gliding stream 
Beautiful to thee must seem, 
As the river of a dream. 

Then why pause with indecision. 
When bright angels in thy vision 
Beckon thee to fields Elysian ? 

Seest thou shadows sailing by, 
As the dove, with startled eye, 
Sees the falcon's shadow fly ? 

Hearest thou voices on the shore. 
That our ears perceive no more, 
Deafened by the cataract's roar ? 



264 MISCELLANEOUS. 

O, thou child of many prayers ! 

Life hath quicksands, — Life hath snares ! 

Care and age come unawares ! 

Like the swell of some sweet tune, 
^ Morning rises into noon, 
May glides onward into June. 

Childhood is the bough, where slumbered 
Birds and blossoms many-numbered ; — 
Age, that bough with snows encumbered. 

Gather, then, each flower that grows, 
When the young heart overflows, 
To embalm that tent of snows. 



Bear a lily in thy hand ; 

Gates of brass cannot withstand 

One touch of that magic wand. 



MAIDENHOOD, 265 

Bear through sorrow, wrong, and ruth, 
In thy heart the dew of youth, 
On thy lips the smile of truth. 

O, that dew, like balm, shall steal 
Into wounds, that cannot heal. 
Even as sleep our eyes doth seal ; 

And that smile, Hke sunshine, dart 
Into many a sunless heart. 
For a smile of God thou art. 



EXCELSIOR. 



The shades of night were falh'ng fast, 
As through an Alpine village passed 
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice, 
A banner with the strange device 
Excelsior ! 



His brow was sad ; his eye beneath, 
Flashed like a faulchion from its sheath. 
And like a silver clarion rung 
The accents of that unknown tongue. 
Excelsior 1 



EXCELSIOR, 26J 

la happy homes he saw the Hght 

Of household fires gleam warm and 

bright ; 
Above, the spectral glaciers shone. 
And from his lips escaped a groan. 
Excelsior ! 



'* Try not the Pass ! " the old man said ; 

*' Dark lowers the tempest overhead, 
The roaring torrent is deep and wide ^ ' 
And loud that clarion voice replied 
Excelsior ! 



** O stay," the maiden said, '* and rest 
Thy weary head upon this breast ! " 
A t^ar stood in his bright blue eye^ 
But still he answered, with a sigh, 
Excelsior ! 



268 MISCELLANEOUS. 

'* Beware the pine-tree's withered branch I 
Beware the awful avalanche ! " 
This was the peasant's last Good-night, 
A voice replied, far up the height, 
Excelsior ! 



At break of day, as heavenward 
The pious monks of Saint Bernard 
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer, 
A voice cried through the startled air 
Excelsior ! - 



A traveller, by the faithful hound, 
Half-buried in the snow was found. 
Still grasping in his hand of ice 
That banner with the strange device 
Excelsior ! 



EXCELSIOR. 26<i 

There in the twilight cold and gray, 
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay, 
And from the sky, serene and far, 
A voice fell, like a falling star. 
Excelsior ! 



POEMS ON SLAVERY. 



[The following poems, with one exception, were written 
at sea, in the latter part of October. I had not then 
heard of Dr. Channing's death. Since that event, the 
poem addressed to him is no longer appropriate. I 
have decided, however, to let it remain as it was writ- 
ten, a feeble testimony of my admiration for a great 
and good man.] 



POEMS ON SLAVERY. 



The noble horse, 
That, in his fiery youth, from his wide nostrils 
Neighed courage to his rider, and brake through 
Groves of opposed pikes, bearing his lord 
Safe to triumphant victory, old or wounded. 
Was set at liberty and freed from service. 
The Athenian mules, that from the quarry drew 
Marble, hewed for the Temple of the Gods, 
The great work ended, were dismissed and fed 
At the public cost ; nay, faithful dogs have found 
Their sepulchres ; but man, to man more cruel, 
Appoints no end to the sufferings of his islave. 

Massinger. 



TO WILLIAM E. CHANNING. 



The pages of thy book I read, 

And as I closed each one, 

My heart, responding, ever said, 

** Servant of God ! well done ! " 
i8 



274 POEMS ON SLAVERY. 

Well done ! Thy words are great and bold \ 

At times they seem to me, 
Like Luther's, in the days of old, 

Half-battles for the free. 



Go on, until this land revokes 

The old and chartered Lie, 
The feudal curse, whose whips and yokes 

Insult humanity. 

A voice is ever at thy side 

Speaking in tones of might. 
Like the prophetic voice, that cried 

To John in Patmos, " Write ! " 

Write ! and tell out this bloody tale ; 

Record this dire eclipse, 
This Day of Wrath, this Endless Wail. 

This dread Apocalypse I 



THE SLAVE'S DREAM. 



Beside the ungathered rice he lay. 

His sickle in his hand ; 
His breast was bare, his matted hair 

Was buried in the sand. 
Again, in the mist and shadow of sleep. 

He saw his Native Land. 



Wide through the landscape of his dreams 

The lordly Niger flowed ; 
Beneath the palm-trees on the plain 



276 POEMS ON SLAVERY, 

Once more a king he strode ; 
And heard the tinkling caravans 
Descend the mountain-road. 



He saw once more his dark-eyed queen 

Among her children stand ; 
They clasped his neck, they kissed his cheeks, 

They held him by the hand ! — 
A tear burst from the sleeper's lids 

And fell into the sand. 



And then at furious speed he rode 

Along the Niger's bank ; 
His bridle-reins were golden chains. 

And, with a martial clank, 
At each leap he could feel his scabbard of 
steel 

Smiting his stallion's flank. 



THE SLAVE'S DREAM. 277 

Before him, like a blood-red flag, 

The bright flamingoes flew ; 
From morn till night he followed their flight, 

O'er j)lains where the tamarind grew, 
Till he saw the roofs of Caffre huts, 

And the ocean rose to view. . 

At night he heard the lioi) roar. 

And the hyaena scream^ 
And the river-horse, as he crushed the reeds 

Beside some hidden stream ; 
And it passed, like a glorious roll of drums, 

Through the triumph of his dream. 

The forests, with their myriad tongues. 

Shouted of liberty ; 
And the Blast of the Desert cried aloud, 

With a voice so wild and free, 
That he started in his sleep and smiled 

At their tempestuous glee. 



z-jZ POEMS ON SLAV£:RY. 

He did not feel the driver's whip, 

Nor the burning heat of day ; 
For Death had illumined the Land of Sleep, 

And his lifeless body lay 
A worn-out fetter, that the soul 

Had broken and thrown away I 



THE GOOD PART, 

THAT SHALL NOT BE TAKEN AWAY. 



She dwells by Great Kenhawa's side, 
In valleys green and cool ; 

And all her hope and all her pride 
Are in the village school. 

Her soul, like the transparent air 
That robes the hills above, 

Though not of earth, encircles there 
All things with arms of love. 



28o POEMS ON SLAVERY. 

And thus she walks among her girls 
With praise and mild rebukes ; 

Subduing e'en rude village churls 
By her angelic looks. 



She reads to them at eventide 
Of One who came to save ; 

To cast the captive's chains aside. 
And liberate the slave. 



And oft the blessed time foretells 
When all men shall be free ; 

And musical, as silver bells, 
Their falling chains shall be. 

And following her beloved Lord, 

In decent poverty. 
She makes her life one sweet record 

And deed of charity. 



THE GOOD PART. .281 

For she was rich, and gave up all 

To break the iron bands 
Of those who waited in her hall. 

And labored in her lands. 



Long since beyond the Southern Sea 
Their outbound sails have sped, 

While she, in meek humility, 
Now earns her daily bread. 

It is their prayers, which never cease, 
That clothe her with such grace ; 

Their blessing is the light of peace 
That shines upon her face. 



THE SLAVE IN THE DISMAL SWAMP, 



In dark fens of the Dismal Swamp 

The hunted Negro lay ; 
He saw the fire of the midnight camp. 
And heard at times a horse's tramp 

And a bloodhound's distant bay. 



Where will-o*-the-wisps and glowworms shine, 

In bulrush and in brake ; 
Where waving mosses shroud the pine, 
And the cedar grows, and the poisonous vine 

Is spotted hke the snake ; 



THE SLA VE IN THE DISMAL SWAMP, 283 

Where hardly a human foot could pass, 

Or a human heart would dare, 
On the quaking turf of the green morass 
He crouched in the rank and tangled 
grass 
Like a wild beast in his lair. 



A poor old slave, infirm and lame ; 

Great scars deformed his face ; 
On his forehead he bore the brand of 

shame, 
And the rags, that hid his mangled 
frame. 
Were the livery of disgrace. 

All things above were bright and fair. 

All things were glad and free ; 
Lithe squirrels darted here and there. 
And wild birds filled the echoing air 
With songs of Liberty ! 



284 POEMS ON SLAVERY. 

On him alone was the doom of pain. 

From the morning of his birth ; 
On him alone the curse of Cain 
Fell, like a flail on the garrered grain,, 
And struck him to the e^rth i 



THE SLAVE SINGING AT MIDNIGHT. 



Loud he sang the psalm of David ! 
He, a Negro and enslaved, 
Sang of Israel's victory. 
Sang of Zion, bright and free. 

In that hour, when night is calmest, 

Sang he from the Hebrew Psalmist, 

In a voice so sweet and clear 

That I could not choose but hear, 
• 

Songs of triumph, and ascriptions, 
Such as reached the swart Egyptians, 
When upon the Red Sea coast 
Perished Pharaoh and his host. 



286 POEMS ON SLAVERY. 

And the voice of his devotion 
Filled my soul with strange emotion \ 
For its tones by turns were glad, 
Sweetly solemn, wildly sad. 

Paul and Silas, in their prison, 
Sang of Christ, the Lord arisen, 
And an earthquake's arm of might 
Broke their dungeon-gates at night. 

But, alas ! what holy angel 
Brings the Slave this glad evangel ? 
And what earthquake's arm of might 
Breaks his dungeon-gates at night ? 



THE WITNESSES, 



In Ocean's wide domains, 
Half buried in the sands, 

Lie skeletons in chains, 

With shackled feet and handSc 

Beyond the fall of dews, 
Deeper than plummet lies, 

Float ships, with all their crews, 
No more to sink or rise. 

There the black Slave-ship swims. 
Freighted with human forms. 

Whose fettered, fleshless limbs 
Are not the sport of storms. 



288 POEMS ON SLAVERY, 

These are the bones of Slaves ; 
, They gleam from the abyss ; 

They cry, from yawning waves, 
** We are the Witnesses ! " 



Within Earth's wide domains 
Are markets for men's lives ; 

Their necks are galled with chains, 
Their wrists are cramped with gyves. 



Dead bodies, that the kite 
In deserts makes its prey ; 

Murders, that with affright 

Scare schoolboys from their play! 



All evil thoughts and deeds ; 

Anger, and lust, and pride ; 
The foulest, rankest weeds, 

That choke Life's groaning tide ! 



THE WITNESSES. 289 

These are the woes of Slaves ; 
They glare from the abyss ; 
They cry, from unknown graves, 

** We are the Witnesses I " 

£9 



THE QUADROON GIRLo 



The Slaver in the broad lagoon 
Lay moored with idle sail ; 

He waited for the rising moon, 
And for the evening gale. 

Under the shore his boat was tied. 

And all her listless crew 
Watched the gray alligator slide 

Into the still bayou. 

Odors of orange-flowers, and spice. 
Reached them from time to time, 

Like airs that breathe from Paradise 
Upon a world of crime. 



THE QUADROON GIRL. 291 

The Planter, under his roof of thatch, 
Smoked thoughtfully and slow ; 

The Slaver's thumb was on the latch, 
He seemed in haste to go. 



He said, '' My ship at anchor rides 

In yonder broad lagoon ; 
I only wait the evening tides. 

And the rising of the moon," 

Before them, with her face upraised. 

In timid attitude. 
Like one half curious, half amazed, 

A Quadroon maiden stood. 



Her eyes were, like a falcon's, gray, 
Her arms and neck were bare ; 

No garment she wore save a kirtle gay. 
And her own long, raven hair. 



202 POEMS ON SLAVERY. 

And on her lips there played a smile 
As holy, meek, and faint, 

As lights in some cathedral aisle 
The features of a saint. 



** The soil is barren, — the farm is old ;" 
The thoughtful Planter said ; 

Then looked upon the Slaver's gold, 
And then upon the maid. 



His heart within him was at strife 

With such accursed gains ; 
For he knew whose passions gave her life. 

Whose blood ran in her veins. 



But the voice of nature was too weak ; 

He took the glittering gold ! 
Then pale as death grew the maiden's check, 

Her hands as icy cold. 



THE QUADROON GIRL. 293 

The Slaver led her from the door, 

He led her by the hand, 
To be his slave and paramour 

In a strange and distant land ! 



THE WARNING. 



Beware ! The Israelite of old, who tore 
The lion in his path,^ — when, poor and blind. 

He saw the blessed light of heaven no more, 
Shorn of his noble strength and forced to 
grind 

In prison, and at last led forth to be 

A pander to Philistine revelry, — 

Upon the pillars of the temple laid 

His desperate hands, and in its overthrow 

Destroyed himself, and with him those who 
made 
A cruel mockery of his sightless woe * 



THE WARNING. 295 

The poor, blind Slave, the scoff and jest of all, 
Expired, and thousands perished in the fall ! 

There is a poor, blind Samson in this land, 
Shorn of his strength, and bound in bonds of 
steel. 

Who may, in some grim revel, raise his hand, 
And shake the pillars of this Commonweal, 

Till the vast Temple of our liberties 

A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies. 



END. 



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IT HAPPENED THIS WAY 

BY 

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